Big Ugly Lofts
by McGinnis INC
Summary: These alphas were out of their league and any teenage misconceptions about invincibility had swiftly flown out the window along with her peace of mind. Everything was hitting her hard, in the gut so deep that she could constantly feel the stomach acid in her throat. Derek/OC. Sequel to "Big Empty Houses".
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize. Song belongs to Marina&The Diamonds.**

**A/N: I needed like two episodes to get my plot bunnies in order but I'm super sorry for any lateness. I immediately started writing after the first episode aired, but I really wasn't into it at all. Something was missing and I felt like everything was flat. Then, a very awesome reviewer named Sandra made the suggestion that the alphas also take Paige. I literally couldn't get that idea out of my head and finally I sat down and everything poured out and it all felt right. Thank you so much for the plot bunny! It was literally just what I needed.**

**And so begins the sequel! Hope you all like it and thank you for reading!**

* * *

Big Ugly Lofts

By: Ginny

* * *

_You're too proud to say that you've made a mistake_  
_You're a coward to the end_  
_I don't wanna admit that we're not gonna fit_  
_No, I'm not the type that you like_  
_Why don't we just pretend?_

* * *

There was still a lot of controversy between the two about whether taking that extra wall down had actually been a good idea or not. For example, Paige had been convinced it should stay. Definitely. There was more than enough space. Derek was less convinced. He claimed that they would need a large space to train the pack.

At the time, Paige had glanced around at the completely empty loft and demanded, "What pack?"

Derek had retreated into himself at the reminder that he had failed as an alpha and hadn't talked to her at all for the rest of the night. The next morning, Isaac had made a point to visit and that put the alpha into better spirits.

Absently glancing around the place as she tried to motivate herself into picking up her GED book, she decided that all in all, it wasn't a bad place to honestly, it beat the railway station and the Hale house. Though there were aspects that definitely left her wanting, this was their home together. The home of her and her mate. Maybe she secretly hated that demolished wall, it didn't matter. Derek had created a space for them to be together and they would happily exist there.

"Until the alphas make their presence known," she reminded herself, mentally.

Things had been quiet. Maybe too quiet. Especially when she considered that the summer was supposed to show a general spike in crime rates - something about everyone being outside and the heat aggravating issues. But Beacon Hills was stable for once. Paige knew it was an act. The longer it took for suspicious activity to arise, the more time the alpha pack had to integrate themselves into daily activity and fuck things up more severely when they finally revealed themselves.

Paige closed her eyes as her thoughts and worries got the best of her. Her heartbeat spiked nastily and she took a deep breath.

"Everything okay?" Derek asked from his desk. She had no idea what he was doing, probably shuffling some paper around. He must have heard the spike in her heartbeat, she realized.

"Just worried about passing this test," she dismissed his concerned. Even she heard the slight jump in her heart that screamed at him that she was lying. But he didn't push it.

They had both been doing a lot of lying to each other recently.

* * *

"Peter called about a lead earlier today," Derek commented lightly in her ear, later that day. They had settled in for the night rather early, but Paige didn't mind. It wasn't ideal for her to look for a job and her GED test was bright and early tomorrow morning. She had only bought that book and studied for a bit because she just didn't want to be too surprised by the kinds of questions she would get on the test. For the most part she understood the content just fine - after all, she had been an honors student about to graduate before dropping out to stay with the pack. She was certain she would do just fine.

So, they decided on an early night... and not that kind of early night.

It seemed all the stress of the alpha pack, combined with the stress of losing Boyd and Erica and left their love life a little dry. But honestly, it was times like this when they didn't really need a stress reliever, so much as a source of comfort. After the last two months being a constant source of worry, it helped to simply let go and relax in the presence of one of the few people either of them could trust.

In particular, she worried about Derek. After what had happened with Scott - the boy's words that night in the warehouse with Gerard... Scott didn't trust Derek not to fuck things up - and fucking things up was exactly what Derek most feared doing. And the longer Erica and Boyd were missing, the more Derek felt like he had irrevocably fucked things up. And on top of that, everything was falling apart: Isaac had slowly begun to hang out more and more with Scott, leaving the pack to merely consist of Paige and Derek. Peter popped in and out to make his presence known and sooner or later that would come back to bite them in the ass. At least Paige had established that Derek didn't trust Peter - not that that was much consolation because Derek didn't trust anyone.

Slowly, darker and darker bags had developed under his eyes. He walked with a slight stoop, like he wasn't looking at the world around him, just the few steps in front of him. And he was distracted all the time. Just that morning he had put orange juice in his cereal bowl.

The worst part was that Paige could do nothing.

No, actually, the worst part was the Paige also felt like shit but had to keep everything together for the sake of her mate. If she was the last person Derek could rely on, she wasn't going to let him down. She just often wished he would take his head out of his own problems for a moment to realize she needed some attention too.

So, this was the closest her wish came to coming true: the two of them lying, entangled in their spacious bed, neither asleep nor awake, listening to the urban part of town below them absently.

"What kind of lead?" Paige asked, nuzzling herself closer into his collarbone.

"He's not really sure," Derek was forced to admit. "But right now we have nothing."

"We always have nothing," she absently replied. When he tensed, she knew she had said something a bit too pessimistic for his fragile psyche.

"I'm going to check it out tomorrow," he said. "I'll probably be gone before you wake up to take your test."

"Okay," she murmured. Actually, it kind of wasn't okay - she had been hoping for a quiet breakfast with her mate before having to sit at a desk and think for a few hours. But, she kept her mouth shut.

"Okay," he echoed.

She knew he was expecting to her to ask him where he was going - push for what exactly kind of lead this was. But honestly, she was so tired. So worn out. They had nothing. They always had nothing. If Erica and Boyd had been taken by the alpha pack, they were probably dead. And she knew that and she hated it and maybe she was completely disillusioned.

When she had chosen to stay in Beacon Hills - to completely give up her mother, father, and brother - she had done so thinking that Erica and Boyd were still on the run from the Argents - that Scott would be there to help and everyone would work together and be good friends. Scott had dropped off the face of the planet except for the times she heard second hand stories from Isaac. And yeah, the kanima had been violent and terrifying, but they had survived. They had all survived and killed Gerard (as far as they knew) and had come out victorious. It hadn't been until a few months into summer that the reality was truly hitting Paige: they were in over their heads. These alphas were out of their league and any teenage misconceptions about invincibility had swiftly flown out the window along with her peace of mind. Everything was hitting her hard, in the gut so deep that she could constantly feel the stomach acid in her throat.

Paige closed her eyes and willed sleep to take her swiftly.

* * *

Derek had made good on his promise that he wouldn't be there when she had to get up. She had heard him rustling around while it was still dark. His lips had briefly glanced over her forehead before she heard the apartment door close. Within an hour, her own alarm went off - but she had already been awake since he had left.

Pulling herself from the bed, she chose not to fix the sheets and instead headed into the kitchen for a small bowl of cereal. After her usual morning routine, she grabbed the necessary documentation, a pencil, and an extra eraser and stuffed it all into her purse, before heading to Beacon Hills high school, where the test was being held.

True, the Camaro was still a very active part of Derek's life. However, Derek and Paige didn't always travel together and as a result, the two had invested in a rental car. Paige had insisted on something fuel-efficient and had persuaded Derek into renting a Prius. Of course, the alpha refused to ever drive it but the car was entirely for Paige's benefit, so that didn't matter. She liked her little Prius. Originally, she had thought to ask Derek whether they should just buy the goddamned car, before she remembered that neither of them might live long enough to make the first car payment.

She made a sharp turn into the parking lot and just let the car idle there for a moment as she collected her purse. This parking lot had all kinds of memories attached to it, she realized. Picking up her brother from school - while she was still human. Facing down a psychotic alpha - after she had been made into a shewolf. Paige sighed and ran a hand through her hair. It got caught and she made a mental note to cut it - she hadn't actually had a haircut since coming to Beacon Hills.

One last glance around the parking lot told her that she was probably rather early - as was her habit - or the only person taking the GED today. Fine, she could use some solitude. And truly, she had stopped enjoying the company of most humans at this point.

Werewolves were very nonverbal - the tilt of their heads, the deeper intake of breath. It all meant something. She had been forced to be in Peter's presence more than she would have liked, but seeing the way Peter and Derek communicated had made an impact on the way even she communicated with the pack. Both of them were born werewolves; they had both grown up in the same pack, interacting like wolf-human hybrids. Everything was very subtle, very physical. Even Isaac had begun to understand a little bit, though he rarely used this new knowledge while talking to his alpha. Only Paige had adapted into the language of the wolf. But now, Paige was so used to communicating without saying too much, that when humans became involved, everything became so much more complicated.

As Paige opened her car door, she took in a nice big whiff of morning air - she preferred night air more but morning air still smelled a bit like night air.

Suddenly, she caught an unfamiliar scent lingering in the small breeze passing by her nose. It was sharp and dangerous - like grey-streaked blotch of black invading her senses.

Instantly, she tensed. Get back in the car? She'd be trapped. This wasn't a human. This was a creature, like she was a creature now and she had to deal with this like the non-human she was. Tossing her purse aside, she squared her shoulders and spun to face whatever it was that had decided to sneak up on her - a man. He was much taller than her, encased in dark denim and leather. His claws were already out and prepared to rip apart flesh and his eyes glowed red. Of course. An alpha.

Paige remembered the way sometimes Derek's eyes lit up when they were having sex - that deep red that glowed like burning charcoal. This red was more like the way Peter's eyes had glowed: a kind of supernatural beacon of evil.

Either way, Paige pushed aside any thoughts and swiftly transformed. Better not to be caught unawares.

"I'm not here to hurt you," the man spoke.

"I really don't believe that," she growled back at him.

"I just want to talk," he tried again.

"If you really want to talk, then tell me where you've locked up my packmates," she demanded. At the man's continued deadpan, she repeated, "You have my packmates: Erica and Boyd. And you've hidden them somewhere. If you want to talk so badly, tell me where they are,"

"We'll take you to them," the man suggested.

There was a sudden sharp pain at the back of her neck, the kind that pinched sharply in one spot and then bled out down her limbs. The word "we" bounced around inside her head as she went limp. The ground rose up to meet her and she got the briefest glance at her attackers.

"_We" - two of them. Look so much alike - twins. Twin scents. She couldn't smell the other one because it was the same. Behind her, and now on ground and now Derek will be all alone - all alone again and all the blame and all the everything and..._

* * *

"Paige," someone was whispering in her ear, so intimately. "Paige, wake up."

That certainly wasn't Derek's voice, so something was terribly wrong. There were so many questions in her head right now and she tried to sort them but the one she managed to mumble was, "Why are you whispering?"

"I'm not," the voice responded, still so soft. "Jesus, Paige, I'm nearly shouting in your face."

"It's a side effect," another voice explained – a female voice. "They probably removed any memory she had of getting here or they took a look at her memories. Either way, she's going to be out of it for a while."

"I'm fine," Paige tried to say. But even in her own cluttered ears, she didn't sound convincing. And already, she was beginning to realize that she could barely see. There were shapes, blotches, but nothing she could actually use in order to make any sense of anything. And even moving her eyes was a chore. It was like there were little weights attached to every cell in her body that just kept weighing her down. Moving anything seemed impossible.

"She should rest for a little while longer," the other voice suggested. It was female - that much Paige could understand, could confirm.

"Erica?" The name sprung from her mouth as slowly she began to grasp that the alphas had told her that they would take her to her packmates. If that was Erica, then the other voice was, "Boyd?"

"I'm here, Paige," he responded. Something heavy landed on her arm and she knew he had placed his big paw on her skin to truly reinforce his presence.

"Oh my God," Paige breathed. With an enormous amount of energy, she moved her head slightly to catch a glimpse of Boyd. It was like moving her head through a tub of dense sand. But it was worth it. In the dark shadows of wherever they were being kept, she found the whites of his eyes and saw the way they crinkled as he smiled down on her. "I thought, oh God, I thought you two were dead. Derek never gave up hope, of course - you know how he is but I'm so sorry I ever doubted that you two were still... oh, thank God. We never stopped looking and see, you guys are alive."

And suddenly, those little white beacons of hope disappeared as he shut his eyes.

"Paige..." he began. His voice broke sharply. "Erica is dead."

She sat very still - not that she had a choice. Suddenly, the weights in her stomach grew by a few pounds and she let out a harsh breath. No, that didn't make any sense. She had just heard Erica speaking - telling Boyd she should be resting.

Summoning all of her energy, Paige slowly swiveled her head to the other side. Before her vision went black again, she saw sleek dark hair caressing a pale face - not the halo of blonde curls she had been looking for.

* * *

"Derek, you need to slow down," Peter's voice was anything but soothing and for a moment Derek wondered why he had bothered to call him. Oh right, because there was no one else left to call.

"The alphas have Paige," Derek repeated, forcing his heartbeat to slow at least a little bit. Even now, it was thundering in his own ears so loudly, he knew he was probably shouting in the phone just so that he could hear what exactly he was saying.

"How do you know?"

He took another deep breath and explained, "After our cold trail, I came back to the apartment. Paige should have been done with her test by then but she wasn't home. I called her and didn't get an answer, so I drove to the high school. The Prius was still there - and her purse was on the ground. They have her."

"Maybe she just left it there?" Peter suggested. "Maybe she was able to run away and is just biding her time before it's completely safe to come out of hiding?"

"Peter, their symbol is etched into the leather of her purse," he finally revealed with a heavy heart.

There was silence on the other end.

"Say something," Derek finally demanded.

"They have Paige," Peter responded.

Hearing those words aloud, out of someone else's mouth, was devastating. Derek clenched the phone so hard he knew he was only a few bits of pressure before it crumbled in his hand. The only thing that stopped him was the knowledge that this was the only cell phone he owned - it was the only number Paige would be able to contact him on. He had to preserve it incase she got loose and needed him.

"Where's Isaac?" Peter immediately asked.

"Already called him," Derek gave himself another second to calm down. "He's on his way over."

"I'm coming, too."

Within ten minutes, they were all gathered in the loft. Derek looked at what his pack had become: a boy who would rather follow some teenage omega and his psychotic uncle. He had lost everyone else: the spunky shewolf who could outfight any of the guys, the tall and strong and brooding but kindhearted beta, and his mate. He had lost his mate. He hadn't protected her like he should have protected her and now she was being held hostage by a bunch of vicious killers.

"She was in the middle of the parking lot," Isaac said, disbelief written all over his face. "It was that easy?"

"I'm assuming she got there early," Derek explained. "She always goes places early. They probably knew that. Used that to their advantage."

"You need to calm down," Peter advised. "You look like you're about to pull something."

It was true. Derek stood in the middle of his loft, arms tensely crossed over each other, his hands gripping the opposite bicep. But even though the stance was certainly tightly-wound, Derek knew why Peter had commented: in his frustration and fear, Derek had let his claws grow long enough to dig into the flesh of his muscular arms. Peter's well-trained nose picked up the scent of blood. Derek let his claws pop out of his flesh and allowed his arms to hang near his sides.

"What now?" Isaac asked, glancing between the two men.

"We continue to do what we've been doing," Peter suggested. Derek glowered at him but Peter's only response was to explain, "Derek, there is nothing we can do. You said you sniffed around and found nothing - not a scent, not a clue. I'll stop by the high school and see if I pick up on anything, but don't be surprised when I don't. We continue what we've been doing: looking for Boyd and Erica because I promise you that Paige will be with them. We find the betas, we find your mate."

For a long few moments, Derek stared hard at Peter. Then he spun around and stalked to the huge windows overlooking the urban sprawl. His natural instinct was to tear down every single building in Beacon Hills looking for her - looking for them. But there was still Isaac to protect. And while he'd sacrifice himself in a heartbeat to save Paige, he knew she would never forgive him if he neglected Isaac and the kid got hurt. Fine. He would keep looking for them and he would find them.

Before it was too late.

* * *

Paige had been awake for five hours. She had left her little shell of comfortable sleep and unwillingly faced the truth. The alphas had kidnapped her. Erica was dead. Boyd was much sharper around the edges than he had once been. And she was sharing a room with Derek's supposedly dead sister, Cora.

"You're my brother's mate," she said very matter-of-factly a few hours after Paige had finally regained full control of her senses and after she had cried for a half an hour. The unfamiliar girl was leaning up against the wall of what seemed to be a giant vault. Paige sat opposite her and blinked.

It took Paige a full half a minute to let that register. "I'm Derek Hale's mate," she clarified.

"I'm Cora Hale," she said.

Paige glanced up at Boyd, who had taken to pacing around the vault. It seemed he didn't like being reminded of Erica's death any more than Paige had liked being informed of it. Still, she didn't know how her friend had perished - she didn't want to know the specifics and Boyd didn't seem to want to share. What did it matter now, anyways? Erica was dead; they had been too late in finding them.

Boyd caught her looking and shrugged, "She told me the same thing. Derek told me all his family had been killed by the Argents."

"They were," Paige responded. "And I've only ever heard of a Laura Hale." Paige turned back to the girl for explanation.

"My older sister," Cora nodded. "Did you know her?"

Paige frowned. Who was this girl? A trick by the alphas? Someone in here to throw them off their game? To fuck with their brains?

She ignored the question and turned to Boyd again. "She been in here with you the whole time?" she asked.

All Boyd did was shrug and then pace to the other side of the vault.

"He's been very quiet," Cora commented. "I think he's grieving."

"Erica was our packmate, our friend - my best friend," Paige snapped. Her eyes glossed over and she was scared she was going to cry again.

Cora glanced down at her interlace hands in her lap and didn't say anything else.

Paige allowed the silence and leaned her head back against the vault wall. God, Derek was going to be so upset. He would somehow find a way to blame himself and then he'd beat himself up about it. And, in the very likely event that she was going to die, he would be even more heartbroken. What would he do? And even if she didn't die - the fact that Erica had perished before they could get to her, save her...

Gently, she let her head drop forward and let a few more tears escape.

But that was it, she decided. Wiping the tear residue from her face, harshly, she stood up. Nope, this was not the time to be sitting around and crying. Yeah, she wasn't an alpha - not at all. But she was the mate of an alpha and Derek wasn't here right now. So, she needed to get the surviving beta out of here and figure out who the hell this girl was who was claiming to be Derek's sister. It was time to be the shewolf that she had grown to be.

Fierce and brave.

Shifting her eyesight was much more difficult than it usually was. Maybe a continued side effect of... whatever those alpha twins had done to her? She made a mental note to ask the supposed Hale about what exactly had happened.

She moved around the perimeter, slowly letting her eyes glide over every crack, every inch of stone. Boyd stopped his pacing to watch her. Cora stood as well.

"We've already checked," she told Paige.

"Look at her eyes," Boyd told Cora. When Paige glanced up at him, she realized he was frowning at her. "She shifted her eyes..."

"She still has some residual power," Cora explained calmly. "It won't last after this full moon."

Paige blinked and let the yellow drain from her eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"I don't know why," Cora began. "I don't know how the pack is doing it, but something has been preventing us from shifting. There has been two full moons we should have shifted - we didn't. We didn't even have the urge to shift. And the longer we are here, the harder it is to even get in touch with our werewolf senses."

"What could cause that?" Paige asked, glancing between the two.

"We don't know," Cora shrugged. "But it's dangerous. The next time we do shift, we will be... out of control."

Paige peered back over her shoulder at the vault wall. "Werewolf senses..." she repeated. "That's why you guys couldn't get out... whatever is blocking your shifting is also inhibiting your strength. You couldn't punch through any of these walls."

An idea occurred to her and she turned around completely. Cocking one arm back, she slammed it forward into the stony wall. A deep indent appeared under her knuckles, and little spider web cracks zoomed out of the dent. Normally, Paige would have been fine after a punch like that - she had helped Derek make the huge hole in their loft. This time, pain radiated up from her knuckles, into her wrist and then into her elbow. The skin had split and was taking its sweet time in closing. Paige gingerly licked at her wounds.

"I forgot how much it sucks being human," she commented dryly.

"I was never human," Cora joked. "Think about how I feel."

Against her will, a small smile spread across her face. It was quickly dropped however when she remembered something, "How did you know I'm Derek's mate?" She pointed to Boyd. "He didn't even know that."

"I can smell him on you," Cora explained.

Oh. Yes. That little bit of Derek-scent that lingered amongst her own natural scent. She knew he also had a bit of her laced into himself as well. But his scent had become such a part of her that unless she concentrated, she often forgot it was there. Taking a deep breath, she tried to catch a whiff of it but it seemed as though she had wasted what little werewolf powers she had left on that punch. She couldn't smell anything except the rank sweat scent that infested the vault.

"Right," Paige nodded.

"Do you trust me now?"

Paige looked at her sideways and finally replied, "I don't trust anyone."

Boyd snorted off in his corner. "You sound like Derek," he commented.

She just rolled her eyes and walked back to the other side of the vault. Gently, she sat back down and cradled her hurt hand.

How much longer till Derek found her?

* * *

_You only ever touch me in the dark_  
_Only if we're drinking can you see my spark_  
_And only in the evening could you give yourself to me_  
_Cause the night is your woman, and she'll set you free_


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize. Lyrics belong to Lana Del Rey.**

**A/N: Hey y'all! Thank you all so much for the support and response to the first chapter! This season has really started off with an action-packed bang and it's utterly superb. Ergo, I feel the need to work twice as hard to make the fic match the awesome quality so far.**

**Minor pet-peeve and what seems to be a popular opinion on tumblr: I just really can't get behind the Ms. Blake and Derek meeting. We'll see if things improve and maybe I'll be able to get behind the pairing and eventually come to ship it. For now, I just feel like Jeff was relying on heteronormative expectations of romance and cliche tropes instead of legitimately building a relationship based on chemistry. I'm a little disappointed, to be honest. I was originally very interested in the potential love interest for Derek and seeing him in at least a semi-happy state. But that being said, we'll just have to wait and see how things pan out.**

**In terms of my fic, Derek and Ms. Blake haven't met yet and I am deviating a bit from canon. It physically hurts me to deviate but it's kind of necessary at this point.**

**Thank you all so much for reading!**

* * *

Big Ugly Lofts

By: Ginny

* * *

_I hear the birds on the summer breeze,_

_I drive fast, I am alone in the night_

_Been tryin' hard not to get into trouble,_

_but I, I've got a war in my mind_

_So, I just ride, just ride,_

_I just ride, just ride_

* * *

_There's a body. It's... she's blonde._

Derek dropped Isaac off at home and then idled in the parking lot behind his loft.

It had been a month since Paige had also been taken. After all that, Isaac had finally stumbled on the the place they were being kept. Derek should have been happy. He knew where they were. Scott and Stiles were arriving in a different car with the bank vault blueprints in order to come up with a plan. Even Peter had volunteered to sit in the corner and make snarky comments.

But... Isaac had also seen a body. Long hair - maybe blonde, maybe not.

The summer gave Paige highlights that lighten the overall look of her hair. Derek had first noticed them a few weeks before she had been kidnapped. He had been so busy in his own head and then one day they were driving to some diner or another and the sun had hit her hair in just the perfect way to make it seem like gold was intertwined in her hair. Absently, he had reached over and entangled his hand into her hair, grasping for the gold, mesmerized by the fact that he hadn't noticed it before now. Paige had turned to him, startled. And quickly, Derek had removed his hand and turned his attention back to the road.

Of course, later that same day, Isaac had visited for the first time in weeks.

"Did you dye your hair?" he had asked Paige.

"No," Paige had responded. "My hair always gets lighter in the summer."

"You look almost like a blonde - hope you don't become a dumb blonde," Isaac had joked.

It was true though - Paige's hair had significantly lightened and now she was could be mistaken for a blonde in the right light.

Isaac said he had found a body - a blonde body.

It was very likely that Erica or Paige were dead. One of them, at least. It could be either, Isaac couldn't tell. Derek had been too late to save them and either his beta had died or his mate had died. Either way, it was his fault.

He left his car and climbed the stairs up to his loft. Pausing outside the main door, he placed his forehead on the metal and took (what seemed like his millionth) deep breath.

When he had first returned to Beacon Hills, when he had first visited his childhood home, he had stood outside the place and envisioned what it had looked like before it had burned down. He had entered the main door and imagined his cousins running down the staircase, his aunts chatting in the parlor room just off to the left. As he toured, he had pictured each member of his family in that restored house, happy and smiling. His mother in the kitchen. His sisters in the living room. All of them, exactly where they should be.

Now, he opened the door to his loft and imagined Paige snuggled up on the couch watching some chickflick. Or, at his desk, trying organize the mess into something more usable. Or, in their bed, napping after a long day of training. Everywhere in that loft had been touched by her somehow, she belonged in every corner of this home and then he blinked.

It was empty again.

* * *

"You know, this is getting old," Paige sighed.

"We've been here a lot longer than you," Cora reminded her.

"I know, imagine how you feel," she muttered. The three of them talked - had developed some kind of bond, perhaps. But after a month of seeing someone for so long, constantly... well, it got very old, very quick. Paige had picked up both of their figures of speech and was slowly also becoming annoyed with herself.

"Another full moon tonight..." Cora commented.

"Shit," Boyd cursed.

If Paige had thought transforming with the moon was difficult, not transforming with the moon was even worse. Her first (and only) time had just felt... _wrong_. It was like her entirely body was in rebellion of just sitting there, in her human form. Everything itched and then ached and finally she had burned all over. The following morning, Cora and Boyd had explained that it got worse with every time.

So, she leaned deeper down and closed her eyes. She knew she couldn't sleep through the moon, but maybe she wouldn't be so tired and upset tomorrow morning if she got some rest now.

Two hours later, the itch was so bad that she woke up. Rolling over, she groaned. Already, Boyd and Cora were growling - not the werewolf growl, but certainly the human-in-tremendous-pain growl. Both of their eyes were glowing, also. It was like everything in their boyd was telling them to continue the natural transition. They weren't human anymore - they were also a wolf and that wolf needed to be free. But their puny little human bodies couldn't handle the transition.

Paige gasped and sat up. She felt... something. Her wolf? Was the shewolf trying to push free, out of her chest? There was a pressure there, and it hurt. It ached and it was spitting fire into her throat.

A swift boom echoed up and down the walls of the vault. For a moment Paige thought one of the other occupants had banged their head against the vault wall - as they had done in the past - anything to knock themselves out. If they couldn't give into the beast, give into the darkness.

But Paige found the source of the noise: the other side of the vault. She stood on shaky legs just as another boom sounded. It was definitely inside the wall. It was coming from inside the vault wall. She took a step forward just as cracks spread from the dent now forming in the stones. Suddenly, a hand punched clean through the wall. And just like that, the rest of the wall came crumbling down.

A figure rolled through the debris and rose into a strong stance.

She knew instantly the pressure in her chest - the mate bond was trying to tell her that he was close.

"Derek!" she shouted.

He instantly tried to take a step towards her, relief washing away deep lines in his face. Then, he seemed to catch sight of something behind her, "Boyd?"

Paige turned. Boyd was breathing heavily - more heavily than before. And... no. His fangs had grown out. He was... transforming?

"Stiles, this really isn't a good time," a voice said. Scott. Scott was behind Derek.

Something was wrong though. Boyd was transforming and something felt wrong - or maybe, it was right. Something was very, very right.

"It will be dangerous," Cora had said. The next time they transform. They were being allowed to transform, how? What had changed?

Little glossy fangs poked up at her own lips, she realized. She was also giving into the moon. But she had been very good about transforming with the moon - Derek no longer needed to tie her up and so long as she wasn't stressed, sometimes she didn't even transform completely. And she never lost control.

But now...

"Derek..." a voice spoke up.

His face dropped, his mouth gaped open and his eyebrows lifted in shocked disbelief. "Cora?" he answered.

Scott was saying something, but Paige felt her whole body jerk forward at once and she knew what was happening. Knew she couldn't control it.

"Cora?" Derek asked once more, voice small and confused.

She tried to warn him - Paige opened her mouth to tell him that they were savage and crazed and would kill them. Instead, a roar echoed from out of her mouth and the shewolf was now in full control.

Like an observer, she watched some unfamiliar woman put down some mountain ash to lock the werewolves all together and then watched as she walked away, arm and arm with a blind man. She watched Cora jump at Derek, watched Derek toss her to the ground. Watched herself claw down Derek's back, watched him grunt and stretch away from her reach.

"Boyd!" someone shouted. Paige pulled herself from the ground - she didn't know how she had ended up there - and watched Allison break the mountain ash circle.

All instinct told her to get out.

She didn't want to bend to the will of her alpha - leave this circle, hunt prey that didn't hunt you back.

Go.

And just like that, she was in the woods.

* * *

Paige didn't know how long they ran - all of them, the other betas. It was like their own pack. But very quickly Paige decided that she had enough of running. She wanted to kill - wanted to rip into someone and taste their blood. This whole running around wasn't doing anything for her.

Growling, she abruptly halted. Boyd and Cora both took their lead from her and paused. She lifted her head up to the moon and sniffed. There - a soft scent of human. Once again, they were running. Cora split off and bounded around up a hill. Paige caught a stale scent and went left. Only Boyd stayed straight on the path. He sprinted past the stream and jumped clean over a fallen tree. Despite being separated, Paige could keep track of both of them and their location using their scent alone.

Alone, she bent over and gave into the stride of the werewolf. The dirt clenched in her hands with each flex of her body. Her claws scraped into the undergrowth and vaguely, she realized she lost a shoe. It felt better that way so she yanked the other one off. As the moon hit a halo into her head, she gave a pleasurable growl under her breath. Is this what she had always been missing?

The hunt was on, she was on and only death would turn her off.

Unfortunately, her trail was a dead end, she realized very quickly. Letting out a frustrated growl, she rounded around and decided to reunite with Boyd - maybe he found something.

And he had - little children.

It seemed they had tried to hide in some kind of shed. Boyd easily lifted the thing and Paige was able to catch sight of the scared kids. It was a boy and girl - obviously a little brother and his older sister. She was clutching her brother in one hand, trying to protect him. In the other hand she was holding a jar of fireflies.

Something inside Paige clenched, just lower than her gut. Every summer night, when she was younger, she had gone hunting for fireflies with her little brother, Wyatt. They would run around and when Paige had been too scared to touch the little bugs, Wyatt had always very patiently, scooped them into her jar. She hadn't seen him in months and had barely called him for fear that the alphas would track him.

Wyatt.

Sweet little Wyatt.

Paige stumbled back, one step and then another and she felt the rough bark of the tree behind her and she tried to catch her breath.

She was human - well, she was a werewolf. There were two sides to that coin, Derek had taught her. Why was she giving in to this instinct so readily? There was something about the moon, she remembered. She hadn't transformed...? She couldn't remember. But something had happened and her grip was so slick with rage, she couldn't hold onto her humanity.

Groaning, she pushed herself away from the tree, only to hear Boyd's roar of frustration. His prey had escaped... he had lost the flesh they were supposed to rip in to. All thoughts of humanity slipped away as she joined in his cry of outrage.

They took off again.

There wasn't any more clear scents to follow and Paige was beginning to get frustrated again. They changed direction toward the residential area - there were definitely going to be humans over there. Cora and Boyd instinctively followed her. She was the oldest, of the three. But Cora had been a werewolf for longer and Boyd was physically stronger. Paige didn't know why they chose to follow her, but they did. And she let them, because she liked it. She felt powerful - like the leader of the pack.

Cora gave a dense roar and Paige swiveled her head. There was some kind of high note ringing in the air. The three betas exchanged glances and followed the noise.

Paige knew it was a trap - some part of her did at least - especially when they reached the high school. Did they think these wolves were lambs for the slaughter? It was laughable. So, when Cora jumped clear upwards, up toward the roof, Paige was only a beat behind her.

The roof was clear and gave them all a chance to take some pure night air into their lungs. Dropping off the other side, they seemed to be in the clear. Paige had just barely stuck her nose in the air, trying to decipher which way would be best to move next, when an obnoxiously bright flash nearly brought her to her knees. Someone was shooting things at them - bright things that _hurt_. As a last ditch effort to keep the whole group of them safe, she corralled them into the high school.

And there was Derek.

In the middle of the long and dark hallway, was her alpha. He already had his claws out and was just waiting for them, a look of trepidation on his steps forward, and Paige realized Isaac and Scott were also there.

It was a trap.

And they had walked right in.

When Derek took off, so did she. He wanted a fight, she'd give him a fight. They had locked these wild animals in a high school, they had better be prepared for the backlash of that mistake. Cora and Boyd were right behind her as she followed behind Derek steadily. They all four rounded a corner and came upon a staircase. Going into the basement was dangerous, but there were three of them and one of Derek. Paige didn't even register Scott.

The boiler room was dark and hot and Paige quickly lost track of Derek and Scott. They seemed to have disappeared until - she caught movement and took off. Too late. The giant steel door closed behind them. Paige whined and scratched at the door. Boyd and Cora were much more vocal and roared loudly. So loudly in fact, that Paige only barely caught the beating heart of a stranger. Deftly, she reached over and silenced the other two betas with a deathgrip on their throats. Slowly, the anger faded from the noises they were making in the back of their throats as they also heard the beating.

Maybe Derek had meant to lock them in with prey?

No, Paige rationalized. He wouldn't do that. He was too good.

Didn't matter now - whoever was here was as good as dead once her little pack stumbled on them. It didn't take long for them to do so - some teacher Paige didn't recognize was just standing there like an idiot, mouth gaping. She growled and took a step forward.

Warm hands landed on her back and yanked her straight off her feet. She was airborne momentarily before she landed - her head bouncing off the ground. There was a sickening crunch and her vision went black. Slowly, the spots left her eyes and she was able to stand and glance around.

A fierce roar rang out, the kind of roar that nearly made her fall back to her knees.

Cora and Boyd had Derek by the arms, holding him tightly. With one arm they restrained him. With the other, they had begun to swipe at him. The sound of unzippering flesh bounced off the walls and Derek just... bowed his head.

Everything came crashing down. The alphas had somehow prevented them from shifting and as a result, they were crueler and more savage. With the mountain ash put in place, the alphas had meant to lock Scott and Derek in with them - had hoped either they would kill Boyd, Cora, and Paige, or vice versa. Paige clutched her head. She couldn't remember how they had escaped the mountain ash - but now, it didn't matter. They were locked in with Derek once again and they would kill him.

He had given up. He refused to kill them. And Cora and Boyd were merciless.

So they would kill him.

They _were _killing him. Long, ugly claws catching strips of flesh and tearing through them. Blood was spattering upwards with every strike.

_They were killing Derek._

"Stop!" the word was out of her mouth before she even realized that she had unshifted. There was a sharp pain right in the middle of her chest and maybe that had made her return to normal. "Stop!" she repeated when they did nothing. "Stop it!" her voice came out like a hoarse wail.

Suddenly, she was across the room, pulling Boyd off of Derek. She slammed his head into the concrete, once, twice - and then he stayed down. Derek was slumping to the side that Boyd had just vacated as Paige rounded on Cora - grabbing her by the throat and jerking her up and off her mate. Cora went flying and tried to get back onto her feet. Paige was on her in a second, slashing savagely from the girls left shoulder to her right hip. The blood sprayed but she also stayed down.

"Derek?" Paige whispered. She came to kneel down before him, gingerly trying find a part of him she could touch without hurting him. He swayed dangerously, and out of desperation she clung to his shirt to keep him upright. His head was still lowered and a single droplet of blood was snowballing down the side of his face. "Derek?" she asked again, she voice still were already hot tears warming her cheeks as they slid down.

Groggily, he lifted his head, though it still leaned heavily to the right.

"Paige?" he breathed.

"Yeah." Paige lifted her hand to cup his cheek. She tried not to think too hard about the blood that was sticking her palm. "I'm here," she told him. "I'm here."

He nodded into her hand a little bit and closed his eyes. His body shifted forward a bit and she caught him. His breath was deep and steady, and he melted into her like it was the only thing he'd been thinking of doing this whole month.

"Derek!" the steel door banged open and Scott and Isaac came stumbling in. "The sun is up!"

The two of them caught sight of Paige and Derek. Paige turned and watched as they took in Boyd and Cora sprawled on the floor and then her and Derek kneeling on the ground together.

Before either of them could open their mouths, Paige commanded, "There is some teacher in the back - Isaac, take care of her. Scott, grab Cora and Boyd. I've got Derek."

Despite her entire body protesting movement after her night of stalking prey, she managed to stand and pull Derek up with her. Already she could see his major wounds closing, but the way he sagged against her told her just how tired he was. The stairs were the most difficult, as Derek kept missing a step. Paige just wrapped her arm around him tighter and pulled his arm farther across her shoulders. She would carry him if she had to.

Chris Argent was the last person she expected to see as she left the building and greeted the sunrise.

Paige nodded to him. His cold blue eyes didn't lessen in sharpness but Paige had bigger problems to worry about.

Where was the car?

"I got the teacher out of the boiler room," Isaac's voice suddenly appeared behind her. "She was kind of shaken up."

"Where is she now?" Derek asked.

"Her classroom, packing up," the beta explained. "Don't know what she was doing at school at four in the morning, though. That's just weird."

"We can discuss what's weird later," Derek snapped. But he still sounded so exhausted that the bite was taken out of it.

"Where is the car?" Paige cut in.

Isaac blinked. "Oh, we've been on foot for most of tonight."

"That isn't what I was asking," it was Paige's turn to snap. "Go on foot, get the car. Bring it back here. He can't walk."

"Yes I can," Derek answered as he began to push away from her. She let him loosen her grip on his body, but didn't let go completely.

"Fine," she said shortly. "I'm not _letting _you walk. Isaac," she commanded. "Car. Now."

He gave Derek one last withering glance but did as he was asked. Paige watched him go and then shuffled Derek to the nearest curb. He sat down heavily. Stiles was just pulling up to the high school and Scott gingerly placed Boyd and Cora in the back.

"Your place?" he asked Derek.

The alpha nodded lazily, reached into his jeans and tossed his keys at Scott.

Once they were gone, Paige brushed her fingers through his short black hair. The action seemed to startle him, though it was something she always did. "I'm sorry," she muttered.

"I should have found you before any of this could have happened," Derek said, tensely. "Or better, I shouldn't have let you get caught in the first place." His head lolled down again.

"Stop," Paige whispered. He glanced up, only briefly. "This stops now," she decided. "This isn't your fault, Derek. At all. I saw you in there - you just... gave up. You just accepted that it was our lives or yours and you laid down and took it. No. Stop that right now, because it doesn't have to be that way."

"It might," Derek claimed. "That's what the alphas want and they will stop at nothing to finish that goal. It is very likely that it will come down to my life or my packs life. What do you honestly think I would choose in that situation?"

"And what do you think that would do to the pack?" Paige asked, harshly. "To me?"

"Right, because you dying instead would be better," Derek pointed out.

Paige frowned at him and then away. In the distance, she heard the hum of the Camaro.

For a moment she thought she imagined the feather-light pressure of something against the side of her head, but when she looked she saw that Derek was trying to pull her closer. She helped him by shifting until she was now the one leaning into him. His lips pressed against her right temple.

"I don't want to lose you," he told her softly. "I love you."

"I love you, too," she sighed. "How about neither of us dies?"

There was a slight rumbling in his chest as he laughed. "Sounds like a plan."

At that moment Isaac swung a left and pulled into the parking lot. "Need help getting him in the car?" he asked.

Derek frowned and stood up all on his own. "_He_ is right here and healing just fine, thank you," he snarled.

But despite his protests, Paige still watched his movements with trepidation. His legs still shook with slight tremors and when he went to grab the car door handle, he overshot and had to grasp for it a second time. Paige and Isaac shared a look before she followed him into the car.

They mostly drove in silence, Derek rode shotgun and leaned his weary head into the seat cushion. Paige sat right behind him, lost in her own thoughts.

"Hey," she suddenly asked. "There's something I've been wondering. How did the alphas keep us from transforming? Was it some kind of magic? Wolfsbane? The mountain ash?"

"No," Derek shook his head softly. "It was the kind of stone the vault was made of - it breaks up the moonbeams. Prevents a wolf from fully transforming, which, as we saw tonight, is a very dangerous thing. And the mountain ash circle wasn't complete until Scott and I got there."

Paige squinted out the window. "I... I don't remember even a little bit of mountain ash being put down," she confessed. "It wasn't there when I first arrived... But I don't remember the alphas putting any in that circle - actually... I don't remember any of the alphas. Surely, I'd remember the ones who took me? Or someone coming in to put the ash down?"

"They can take memories," Isaac threw in from the drivers seat. She met his eyes in the rearview mirror. For some reason she knew he was speaking from experience.

"Well, that's not terrifying," Paige snarked and tried to focus on the blurred shapes of the road.

"Do you remember anything about your... captivity?" Derek asked.

She tried to grasp onto something - there were still questions she had, now that she thought about it. How did she eat? Who fed her? How did she use the bathroom? And how long had she been locked up?

"Now that you ask... No," she answered honestly. Everything was swimming away from her, like waking up from a dream and not remembering why you were so terrified to begin with. "How long was I gone?"

"About a month," Isaac told her, after Derek said nothing. Paige did however, hear the popping of his jaw while he clenched it.

A month? It didn't feel like a month. By all mean, that should disturb her more than it actually did, but something was still bugging her... "That girl," she spoke up. "She's really your sister, isn't she?"

"I... yeah," Derek finally breathed. "Don't ask me how she escaped or survived. Last I knew, she died in the fire."

Paige nodded, though he couldn't see. So, Cora had been telling the truth. At this point in the game though, Paige hadn't been likely to doubt her. Did that mean that Cora was going to be staying with them at Derek's loft? That seemed like the best option. Surely, Boyd would go home to his family, and Erica... Paige closed her eyes but she knew that she needed to ask about that other thing she had learned while being locked up.

"Erica is dead, isn't she?" Paige's voice was small.

Derek didn't turn around and Isaac focused harder on the road.

"Okay," she murmured. That answered her question. She had had nearly a month to adjust to that knowledge - by all means, it shouldn't have hit her that hard. But she had been so desperately hoping that Boyd and Cora were mistaken - that the alphas had kept her alive for the fun of it, for bait, something.

Paige remembered Erica, before all this. She had been vibrant, if a little mousy. She had been kind and gentle in her own desperate way. And while she hadn't been totally happy, she had been alive. Erica had been her first friend her own age, here in this new town. They had bonded over their mutual fear of human interaction and it had been Paige who had suggested that Erica should have the bite. God, Paige remembered when Erica and Boyd had finally made the decision to leave that pack, "I want to get my license. I can't do that if I'm dead." And yet, here they were.

There was an empty spot in her stomach.

Tears welled up in her eyes and she tried to close them to prevent any of the droplets from falling. This seemed to have the opposite effect. And then suddenly, Derek had undone his seatbelt and was climbing into the back of the car with her. Gently, he pulled her closer until she could bury her face into his bloody shirt.

Later, after they had gotten back to the loft and taken care of the other betas, Paige wandered into the bathroom to clean up. There was some of Derek's blood smeared onto her cheeks from where she had pressed close to him and two tear tracks cutting pale lines into that blood.

That seemed to be the theme of her life at the moment: tears and blood.

* * *

_Dying young and I'm playing hard_

_That's the way my father made his life an art_

_Drink all day and we talk 'til dark_

_That's the way the road dogs do it – ride 'til dark._


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize. Lyrics belong to Marina and the Diamonds**

**A/N: A reviewer brought up the "I love you" in the last chapter and the fact that it was glossed over. Just to be clear: that was not the first time they exchanged that sentiment. There was a four month time skip between the last actual chapter of the story and first chapter of this story. I glossed over it purposefully to show that this wasn't a new thing for them. The plan was to write a bonus chapter involving his first time saying "I love you". The season is broken up into two groups of twelve episodes. There will be a break between the two and in that case, I want to be able to have something to write. Sorry for the confusion.**

**As always, thank you guys so much for reading!**

* * *

Big Ugly Lofts

By: Ginny

* * *

_You're too proud to say that you've made a mistake_

_You're a coward to the end_

_I don't wanna admit that we're not gonna fit_

_No, I'm not the type that you like_

_Why don't we just pretend?_

* * *

Paige thoroughly scrubbed the blood from her face and then leaned heavily into the sink. Her mind replayed the night over and over again - it was like a foggy memory at this point. There were huge chunks missing. Realistically, she had been on the prowl the entire night - there should be a whole night's worth of memories. Instead, there was nothing.

When she left the bathroom, she found Scott, Stiles, and Isaac lingering in a corner of the loft while was Derek kneeling on the ground next to one of their makeshift cots, pressing a bundle of gauze to one of Cora's head wounds. Probably one Paige caused. The betas were both still very unconscious, so she'd have to ask later.

Instead, she asked, "Did we kill anyone?"

Scott and Derek shared a look and Paige felt her stomach drop. Was that one of the memory gaps? Had she killed someone and just repressed it now that she was human and in control?

"No," Stiles shook his head.

"Are you sure?" Scott questioned. "When you called, you said the throat had been ripped out..."

"Your mom let me into the morgue," Stiles informed him and everyone else in the room. "He had wounds that were human-made. He's one of two- there are two murder victims so far, all with the same wounds. They had their heads bashed in, their throats slit, and were strangled with string. Threefold death. I doubt Paige, Cora, and Boyd would have had the presence of mind to pick up some string."

Derek was nodding knowingly, which made Paige glad. If Derek didn't think they could have killed that guy, then they didn't.

"Who's the other murder victim?" Isaac asked, curiously.

"Huh?" Stiles seemed to snap clean out of whatever trance he had put himself into.

"You said there were two victims," the beta clarified. "Who's the other victim? Do you know?"

Stiles swallowed. "Heather," he told them, softly.

Paige had no idea who that was. But by the way Scott reached over and clasped his hand onto Stiles shoulder, she realized the boys must have known her. Or at least, Scott and Stiles. Isaac glanced at Paige to see if she had any clue either.

"You guys should go home," Derek said, gesturing to Scott and Stiles. "You have school tomorrow morning."

They both nodded and Stiles followed Scott out of the loft. Paige tiptoed over to Boyd. His wounds were slowly closing, but at least they _were _closing. There was still a dent in his forehead from where she had viciously bashed his head into the pavement. She hoped that healed cleanly before he woke up and could get mad at her.

"Well, it seems like everything's back in order," Isaac commented. "I'm going to my room, and I'm going to pass out."

She glanced back at him but he was already disappearing into one of the spare rooms. Confused, she turned to Derek. "He wanted a room here?" she asked. "I thought he said he didn't need it because he was living at his house?"

"I gave him a room here," Derek told her. "And he moved all his stuff in. He's living here now."

"Ah," Paige made a noise in the back of her throat and glanced back the way Isaac had left.

"I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to discuss it," Derek apologized as he began to collect the bloody gauze.

"Well, me being kidnapped and locked in a vault for a month probably made discussing it very difficult," she joked. But Derek still tensed up - must be too soon.

"After you were taken, I didn't think it was safe for Isaac to live on his own," Derek explained. "I wanted him where I could see him and protect him. And without you, the loft was just..." he trailed off.

"Big and empty?" she guessed.

He nodded and disappeared into the kitchen.

"What?" a small voice mumbled behind Paige. She turned to find that Cora was blinking erratically at the ceiling.

"Hey," Paige greeted, stepping closer.

Cora's eyes found hers and she tensed up. "Where's Derek?" she asked.

"Right here," the alpha answered from the kitchen doorway. As the girl twisted to see him, she must have aggravated some injury, because she winced heavily.

"Ha," she let out a choppy breath. "Shitty reunion, huh?"

He shrugged. "I've had worse."

Cora stared at him for a moment, trying to gauge how serious he was, before nodding. She probably realized just how shitty some of his reunions had been. Then, she tried to push herself up - only to collapse back down. Derek immediately crossed the room and gently guided her back onto her cot.

"You had a long night and it would be better if you rested," he advised.

"We need to talk," she muttered, but already her eyes were closing and her head was lulling off to the side.

"We'll talk in the morning," he told her gently. Paige blinked. It was unusual to hear him use that tone of voice with anyone other than her.

The girl finally succumbed to sleep.

Derek caught Paige's gaze and jerked his head to the side, indicating that they should follow the beta's example and get some shut-eye.

For a moment, Paige thought it might just be easier to strip off her bloody clothes and sleep naked, before she remembered that maybe with Cora and Boyd sleeping in the same big room, that wouldn't be the best idea. Instead, she collected some pajamas and quickly changed. Derek opted to just strip down to his boxers. Paige tried not to roll her eyes.

"I missed you," he confessed, after they were both settled in their bed. "More than I ever could have imagined."

Paige nuzzled closer. "I missed you, too." Then she smiled. "Even without me, you managed to keep this place pretty clean."

"I know how to wash things," he insisted.

"Yeah, I suppose you do," she agreed. "So, she really is your sister..."

"You doubted her?"

"You never mentioned her," Paige said. "All I've ever heard about was Laura. Actually," Paige realized. "You don't talk about any family members except Peter and Laura. You've never talked about your mother or your father or anyone." And suddenly, she realized that that bugged her. Why didn't he want to talk about his family with her?

"It didn't seem relevant," was all he said. He pulled away a bit and closed his eyes.

Paige watched the shadows dance across his face as he fell into sleep.

Why didn't he want to tell her about his family? Wasn't she a part of it, now?

* * *

"Where's my car?" Paige demanded, into the phone.

"Your car?"

"Yeah, my car," she repeated. "I'm standing downstairs, looking at the spot where my car would normally be parked and it is not here. Did you return it to the rental place?"

"Isaac probably took it to school," Derek explained.

Paige pulled the cellphone away from her ear and made a face at it. "What?"

"When you were gone, Isaac kind of... got used to taking the Prius to school," he clarified. "He probably took it this morning without thinking. Why do you need it?"

"It's very early in the morning," she commented. "Why is he at school this early?"

"Cross country."

"Cross...what? When did that happen?" Paige asked. "I thought he did lacrosse. Why did he switch?"

"He didn't switch - lacrosse and cross country are two different seasons," Derek explained. He was trying to keep his voice calm but already she could hear the tension building. It seemed even after a day of relaxing and recovering, stress still managed to sweep in. "Why do you need the car, Paige?"

"Well," Paige huffed, popping a hip out even though no one was there to see the gesture. "Considering that Boyd was missing when we woke up yesterday morning, I wanted to stop by his place and see if he was okay."

"If he was okay enough to leave, he's probably fine," Derek rationalized.

"I want to check anyways," she insisted.

"Fine." And the line clicked dead. Paige pulled the phone away from her face again and frowned. What the hell? Had he seriously just done that?

She didn't need a car, she decided. Who needs a car when you're a werewolf? She could run at breakneck speeds - she was fine. So, fine on you Derek, she thought. Boyd didn't live that far anyways and by the time she got there, she hadn't even broken a sweat.

The younger beta was just leaving his house when he caught sight of Paige. He rolled his eyes and kept walking towards the bus stop a block or so down.

"How are you?" Paige asked, ignoring his initial reaction to her presence.

"Paige, I really don't need this right now," he told her, yanking his backpack higher up on his shoulder.

"I'm just checking in on you," she said, frowning.

"No, it starts off as you checking in on me," he began. "And then it's us acting friendly, then it's you needing help with something supernatural, then it's me risking my life, and then it's me dying for you. No thanks. I'm out. I'm not part of the pack. I'm not part of this life anymore."

"You can't be serious," Paige sputtered. "Those alphas locked you in a cage for months. They killed Erica. You just... you're just going to peace out on us?"

"Yeah, Paige, I am." The bus was revving in the distance. "I lost my only friend. I have no one and I'm not about to lose my life. Not for the pack that got Erica killed."

The bus pulled up and Boyd stepped away from her. Without thought, she shot out a hand and gripped his arm. The fact that he was blaming the pack for Erica's death certainly rubbed her the wrong way. And after her talk with Derek this morning, she wasn't in the best of moods to begin with. She just wanted to lash out. "We didn't get Erica killed," she snarled. "You two made the choice to leave. You left the pack for dead - but we pulled through. Without you two, we stopped the kanima and destroyed Gerard. Everything would have been fine. You made a mistake in leaving - and then you got caught and she got killed. It was the poor judgement of two teenagers that got her killed. Don't forget that." And then she let him go.

She didn't wait to see his expression before she walked away. Once she was a safe distance, she took off into a sprint and didn't halt that pace until she was home. This time she did break a sweat, but she couldn't tell if it was from the exercise or the guilt.

"Did you check up on Boyd?" Derek asked once she made her way up into the loft.

"Yeah," she replied and that was the end of the discussion.

Cora was awake and eating a healthy meal of egg whites and whole grain toast. Paige tried not to think that it was too weird that the girl was wearing her clothing - and very little of it at that. Just a sports bra and some cargo pants. "We're out of milk," she announced just as Paige was reaching into the pantry to grab some cereal.

Paige wasn't sure if she liked that Cora was using the pronoun "we", but she decided not to push it. "Then I guess I'll have some toast," she offered.

"The only slices left are the ends," Cora informed her. "I don't know if you like that kind of thing."

"I don't," Paige groaned.

It seemed Derek could keep a house clean but a pantry empty. Or maybe that was a result of Isaac living with him. Growing teenage boys need food, don't they?

"I will... go grocery shopping," she decided. She left the kitchen, passed Derek finally putting away Boyd's unused cot, and said, "I'm taking the Camaro for some groceries. That okay?"

"Sure." Derek tossed her the keys and she went to make a list.

* * *

Shopping for a loft full of werewolves was a completely new experience - not that when she had been shopping for just her and Derek, she hadn't been shopping for a loft full of werewolves. This time it was more like a family... like a pack again.

Erica was dead. Boyd wasn't coming back. Jackson was permanently in London. Scott would never submit to Derek. Fine. That was all fine because Isaac was still there. Cora had been discovered to be alive. And Paige certainly wasn't going anywhere. Maybe they could make and keep their pack this time.

When Paige was younger, her mom would always do the grocery shopping. About a block away from their house in Chicago, she would call the home so that Wyatt and Mr. Flanagan knew that their service was required to bring the groceries into the house. Glancing back at the pile of groceries in the backseat, Paige thought about calling the loft. Except... she was much, much stronger than her mother.

Paige very easily carried all of the bags, though she had to put some down to open the downstairs door. She was so preoccupied by the groceries that she didn't catch the subtle ache in her chest that normally would have told her something was wrong.

Before she could reach out and open the door to the loft, the door opened all by itself and out walked a blind man being led by some barefooted woman. Right behind them was a tall, broad, brutish man. Their scents hit her all at once - they were alphas. All three of them. And then the scent of blood reached her nose - Derek's blood.

Dropping the groceries, she distantly heard the eggs shatter.

"That's unfortunate," the blind man commented lightly.

She shifted before she knew what she was doing. And then, she paused. Attack them? Do it here? Now? There was blood, but that didn't mean Derek was dead - maybe just injured. Go look for him? See if he was safe? What about Cora? Where was Cora?

Settling her thoughts, she reached out for Derek's heartbeat.

It was still there.

Sprinting around the smiling alphas, she stumbled into the loft. In the very middle of it, Derek was lying in a pool of his own blood. Cora leaned over him, trying to put pressure on some wound on his abdomen.

"What happened?" Paige demanded. She very nearly pushed Cora out of her way to come kneel next to Derek. Using claws she still hadn't put away, she ripped off his shirt and exposed the wound. There was a pole situated right next to the wounded alpha. The circumference was just the same size as the wound on Derek's stomach. Gingerly rolling him over, she found a matching hole. They had stuck a pipe through her mate.

A low growl echoed in the back of her throat, but Derek reached out and put his hand around her wrist. He could barely grip it, he was that weak. "Stop," his eyes said.

Fine. She would kill them tomorrow.

For now, she pulled the rest of his torn shirt away and ordered Cora, "There is a plastic covering in the closet in the spare room. Go get it." The girl shot her a look, but did as she was told.

"God, Derek," Paige muttered, using the shirt to put pressure on the wound. Cora returned and Paige commanded, "Grab his other arm." Together, they pulled him to his feet and Paige slid out from under his grasp to arrange the plastic on their shared bed.

Cora helped him onto the bed and he spread out with a groan.

"How long will that take to close?" Cora asked. Derek didn't bother to respond so Paige shrugged.

"Anywhere from an hour to a few hours," she estimated. "But we can probably speed it along, or at least reduce the pain."

"It's fine," he grunted from the bed.

"Oh, shut up," Paige dismissed. Quickly, she crossed the loft, poked her head into one of the spare rooms and rustled through some of the boxes they hadn't just yet unpacked. Grabbing the peroxide and bandages, she made her way back into the main room.

"But Derek," Cora was saying - only to be cut off.

"No, Cora," he snapped. "Not a word." Paige felt like she had missed the first part of whatever they were saying. She'd worry about it later - there were other things to get done right now. With knowledgeable hands, she cleaned, disinfected, and bandaged the wound. Derek didn't make a peep the entire time. Instead he kept his eyes closed and his face as neutral as possible.

Paige went to throw out the bloody tissues and Cora followed her for a glass of water for Derek.

"What happened?" Paige asked, tossing the tissues in the garbage.

"They showed up," Cora shrugged as she reached for a glass. Paige was getting annoyed by how well this girl knew the layout of their kitchen.

"And...?"

"And that's it," Cora snapped. She filled the glass up.

"Did they say what the fuck they wanted?"

"No," she turned off the water and tried to walk away. But Paige had heard the way her heart jumped. She was lying.

Paige reached out and grabbed her arm, twisting her back to face her. "You're lying," she accused.

"Let go of me," Cora said softly.

"Not until you tell me what they said," Paige insisted. Her grip tightened when all Cora did was scowl deeper. She almost looked like Derek in that light. In fact, her grip was so tight that the glass of water dropped from Cora's hand.

Before it could even shatter on the floor, Cora had already pulled away and taken a swing. Paige ducked it, letting it breeze right above her head. Then she turned around and let her leg fling out. It caught Cora right in the face, snapping her head to the side. Paige caught her footing and snapped a hand out to grasp her throat and push her against the kitchen wall while she was still dazed from the kick to the face. Her claws dug into the flesh of her neck hard enough to draw blood.

"Why did they come here?" Paige asked again, this time with a growl.

Cora kicked her flat in the stomach, causing her to let go and stumble back. Paige had not been expecting that amount of force behind the kick. As she caught her breath, she let go and shifted. If this bitch wouldn't tell her why these alphas had come into her home and had stuck a pipe into her mate, she was going to force the answer out of her.

Something sharp caught her neck and for a moment she felt her feet leave the ground. On instinct, she let herself go limp so that when she did land, it wouldn't cause too much damage. Her head hit the floor and blackness danced around her vision.

"Leave the room," Derek ordered.

Paige listened to Cora's footfalls as she beat a hasty retreat. Good riddance - Paige was beginning to truly dislike this girl. It didn't seem to matter that she was Derek's sister and therefore family - she was still a new source of annoyance for Paige. Gingerly, Paige pushed her stiff body into a sitting position - her joints protesting with each stretch of her body - and looked up.

Despite his injuries, Derek had made the trek into the kitchen and apparently had had enough energy to pick her up by the neck and toss her across the room. He leaned heavily onto the kitchen table and hugged his bandaged wound.

"You shouldn't be walking around," Paige accused.

Derek's expression didn't change so Paige stood up and reached out to help him back to their bed. He shifted a step away from her and shook his head.

"Don't ever attack my sister again," he told her, his voice dangerously low.

"She swung at me first!" Paige insisted.

"I don't care," he snapped. That was usually his tone of voice that indicated that the conversation was over, but he didn't move. Instead, his adam's apple bobbed in this throat like he was trying to make up his mind. Paige could feel the deep throb in her chest and knew he was projecting that emotion onto her, probably unintentionally. Why was he so upset?

"What did they want?" Paige finally asked. Derek said nothing, but the adam's apple stopped bobbing. She tried again. "Cora wouldn't tell me and I think you told her not to tell me so it must be important. What did they say?"

"I don't think we should see each other anymore," Derek responded instead. Every organ in her body dropped clear to her feet and she reached out to grab at the counter behind her.

"What?"

"I appreciate everything you've done for me, Paige," he told her. "But I think I was trying to turn you into something you're not and this relationship into something it isn't. After I lost my family, I wanted that kind of connection back and I believe I turned you into some kind of substitute. I turned the pack into a substitute family. But it was never the same - it was a weak projection of the family I had lost. And now I have my real family back - Cora is alive. I've realized that I couldn't substitute that, especially not with you. You abandoned your own family, after all."

Paige cut him off. "I didn't abandon them - I, I stayed here when they left. That's different. And I did it for you, Derek. I let them leave and I stayed for _you,_ for this family!"

He shook his head. "It's only a matter of time before you leave this family too. This is destined to end up badly, anyway, Paige. You were always so young, so naive. You act like a child. The mate of an alpha can't be that immature. She can't attack the betas in the pack."

"She attacked me first!" Paige shouted back at him and then winced at how childish it sounded. Something about all of this felt so wrong - maybe how sudden it was, maybe the fact that her own pain was mingling just as strongly with Derek's in the core of her heart. But despite how wrong it felt, she still felt panicked and hurt. This was everything she had ever feared - losing Derek, whether because he died or he no longer wanted her. "Mates are for life," she tried in a small voice. "You can't just put me aside and pick another one."

"I don't want another one," he said emotionlessly. "I don't need another one. I could only be mated with someone I trusted, I've come to realize. And I don't trust anyone. I don't trust you. I never have and I never will." Paige nodded swiftly, because in her heart of hearts she knew he wasn't lying about that. He would never trust her and that was that and why the fuck had she stayed to begin with? Why had she thought that the longer she stayed with him, the more likely he would trust her? Her eyes started watering, but she didn't brush the tears away. It was like she couldn't move. Derek finally swallowed and said, "Trust is a big part of love. And if I can't trust you, I don't love you either."

"Oh," she said in a small voice.

But he didn't stop there. "To be perfectly honest, I don't think I mind the idea of one day having children," he confessed. "I know I fuck things up, but I'd be willing to have children if their mother was worthwhile. I just don't think - I mean, given how immature you are, how easily you gave up your family, and how I could never trust you - I don't want to have children with you."

They stood in silence for a few moments, both looking at each other but neither one actually seeing the other. Paige honestly had nothing to say.

All of that... everything Derek had said had been fears, regrets and insecurities Paige had held close to her heart. And then to hear Derek say them... to accuse her of abandoning her family, to tell her that she was too young, that he didn't trust her, that he would have children with another a woman, but not her. Everything she had secretly feared, and there was Derek, confirming it.

"I'll get you a ticket to Chicago," Derek finally broke the silence. "I don't want you here with the rest of the pack."

Paige nodded, again, numbly.

Swiftly Derek exited the kitchen. Paige spent a few more minutes situated against the counter, blinking at the brick wall opposite her. Finally, she wiped her eyes. She was nothing if not her father's daughter and a werewolf to boot - she would preserve as much dignity for herself as she could. She straightened her still-bloody clothing and squared her shoulders. While he was buying her ticket, she would change and pack up her things.

It was odd, she realized. When she had left her big empty house, she had had four boxes. When she had left the subway station, she had had only a suitcase. But here in the loft, she had built up a life. She had too many things to just fit in a suitcase so she left a lot of clothes for Cora, left a lot of pictures because she knew she wouldn't want the reminder, and she left her heart. It seemed like she didn't have a choice. Despite Derek not wanting her as a mate, they had still mated, they were still linked. Her heart would always be in this loft, with him.

Derek absently handed her the ticket he had printed out just as she finished packing.

Without a word, she took it and went outside to call a cab.

They didn't say goodbye.

* * *

The airport was crowded - it seemed she wasn't the only one desperate to get out of Beacon Hills. Paige should have been ashamed that all she had to her name was a carry-on bag full of clothing, but she really didn't care. Her entire life had just been dragged out from underneath her and every fear and insecurity she had had in her relationship with Derek had been used against her. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, but what did it matter? She had stayed for the pack and now the alpha had confessed he truly didn't want her?

Paige took her bag and sat in the lounge, hoping that getting off her feet would calm her down.

Her phone rang.

Oh, she had forgotten about her phone. Technically it was Derek's - he had paid for it. Actually, he paid for everything in the relationship. Paige had never been uncomfortable with how financially dependent on him she had been, not until now. She still had a debit card in her wallet that connected to his bank account - she should get rid of that.

"Hello?" she answered the phone.

"Paige?"

"Isaac?"

"Where are you?"

She glanced around. Should she answer him honestly? It would be an injustice not to, she decided. "I'm at the airport," she told him. "I'm going back to Chicago. Derek and I broke up."

"What?" Isaac's voice hit up a note. "Why?"

"It just... wasn't working, I guess," she said softly. It hadn't been working for Derek, apparently.

Isaac was quiet for a bit before saying, "I guess a lot of things aren't working with Derek right now."

"What do you mean?" Paige leaned back farther in her chair.

"I was calling to see if you could talk some sense into him," he said. "I came home from school and he told me the living situation wasn't working, not now that Cora was there. He just told me to leave. I sold my dad's house, Paige. Derek had suggested it so that I could start saving up for college. I have nowhere to go."

"Calling all passengers for flight B302," the intercom squeaked.

Paige glanced up at the board with her flight schedule on it. Getting rid of Paige was one thing, she knew - especially if he truly felt like he could never trust her and could never love her. But getting rid of both Paige and Isaac in the same day was suspicious. She hoped Cora had nothing to do with that, otherwise Paige would have a few things to say to that girl. But truthfully, now that she was calmer, Paige was beginning to realize the visit with the alpha's had probably encouraged Derek to push them away. She had no clue why, but she certainly wasn't going to find anything out while in Chicago.

Well, fuck that.

Standing up, she grabbed her bag. "Hey, Isaac," she said. "Change of plans: I'm not going to Chicago."

"Okay..." Isaac trailed off. "Are we going to talk to Derek?"

"Nope," she decided as she walked away. "Do you think Boyd will take us in?"

"Not at all," he told her. "He won't even look me in the eye at school. What about Scott?"

Paige thought about it as she flagged down a cab. "He'll take you in, in a heartbeat."

"Not you?"

"No," she said as she hopped in the cab. She quickly made up her mind. Pressing the receiver of the phone against her collarbone, she told the cab driver, "Downtown, please." To Isaac she commanded, "Go to Scott's. Stay in school. I'll stay with Peter and I'll be around."

"Peter? Is that a good idea?"

No.

"Yes," she responded. "He's my werewolf uncle-in-law. He'll take me in, if only to tick off Derek when he finds out."

"If you're sure..."

"Yes," she decided. "We'll figure this out. The alphas came to the loft when I wasn't there. Neither Derek nor Cora would tell me what they wanted - but I'm willing to bet it's connected to how Derek is acting now."

"Don't make excuses for him," Isaac suddenly snapped. And then Paige wondered what exactly Derek had done or said to Isaac to make sure the boy wouldn't come back.

"Okay," she said softly. "No excuses."

"Be safe," Isaac told her.

"You, too," she replied. And then they hung up.

Paige used the Derek's debit card one last time to pay the cabby and then she used her claws to cut it up. It was time to cut herself off from needing him - in anyway.

Using her werewolf sense of smell, she tracked Peter to a building near the north side of the downtown area. It was pretty savvy and Paige really hoped he was using legal means to pay for it. He was on the third floor and he answered on her third knock.

"You're a long way from home," he noticed.

"The loft is only fifteen minutes from this place," she snarked. "Hardly a long way."

"Really? Because I was checking up on Derek's credit card history and it seems he bought a ticket to Chicago," Peter shot back, still leaning in the doorframe, immobile. "I'm assuming he was sending you away. And yet, here you are."

"If he thought it would be that easy, he was wrong," Paige informed him. "Also, I'm not going to ask why you have access to Derek's credit card history or how you've been using that access. You going to let me in?"

"What?" Peter glanced back into his apartment. "You think I'm going to let you stay here?"

"Yes," she said simply.

"That's rather presumptuous."

"Listen," Paige took a step closer. "Right now there is an alpha pack in Beacon Hills and they are not friendly at all. Today, they put a pole through Derek. A few days before, they tried to kill Derek and Scott using Boyd, your niece, and I as the weapons. A month before that, they kidnapped me. A few days before that, they killed one of Derek's betas. Two months before that, they kidnapped your niece and two betas from Derek's pack. Do you really think that so long as you're in this town, you're going to be left alone? You are a spineless, manipulative man who only looks out for himself. Surely you understand that eventually you won't be able to squirm out of the alpha's notice. Especially not if they think you want to become alpha after Derek."

"I won't be alpha after Derek," Peter reminded her. "You will be."

"That's beside the point. We work better together. We will survive better together. It's in your best interest to keep me around," she finished.

He looked her up and down. "Just so long as you remember that this isn't a kind act from my bleeding heart. This is self-preservation."

"Of course," Paige nodded. "I told you - you're a spineless, manipulative bastard."

Peter just chuckled and let her in.

"I expect you to pay rent," he informed her.

"That's fine - I was going to get a job anyways," she said, surveying the apartment. The building was pretty modern, but Peter's apartment was still pretty small - only one bedroom. Paige would be sleeping on the couch, it seemed. The whole apartment was littered with books, most of them old and dusty. But it still smelled pretty good.

Paige nodded after she was done looking around.

She could do this.

* * *

_You're never gonna love me, so what's the use?_

_What's the point in playing a game you're gonna lose?_

_What's the point in saying you love me like a friend?_

_What's the point in saying it's never gonna end?_


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize. Lyrics belong to Lana Del Rey.**

**A/N: Dear lord, I almost cried about five different times last night! Oh my God, it was intense. Also, just in case it hasn't been clear, I'm working with each new episode that comes out. This means a few things. One, there will be spoilers. If you haven't watched the latest episode, you probably shouldn't read my latest update – for your own safety. Two, there will be times I have to smooth over a canon mistake I made or have to edit previous chapters. I'll let you know if something in a previous chapter is changed. For example, this opening scene was something I had to smooth over and sometimes I'm self-conscious about things that aren't as smooth as I would prefer them. If you catch things like that – please tell me.**

**I made the choice to split this update up between two chapters because so much was going on. There will be a new chapter again sometime this week – might be posted as late as Saturday. I've recently become addicted to True Blood and am plowing through the seasons, but I have designated time set aside Friday afternoon to write.**

**As per usual, thank you all so much for the continued support! You guys are great!**

* * *

Big Ugly Lofts

By: Ginny

* * *

_I've seen the world, lit it up_

_As my stage now_

_Channeling angels in the new age now_

_Hot summer days, rock 'n' roll_

_The way you play for me at your show_

_And all the ways I got to know_

_Your pretty face and electric soul_

* * *

Paige was slowly growing accustomed to living with Peter. Sure, the man was neurotically clean, but that didn't mean he was particularly organized. And his couch was definitely not meant for comfort.

Waking up two days after moving in, Paige groaned as she stretched. "Your couch is shit," she told him.

He just hummed in the back of his throat like he often did when he didn't want to bother actually speaking to her. But after a moment, he snarked back, "Your haircut is shit."

Paige had decided that a good break up should include an emotional hair transformation and between job hunting the day before, she had cut her light brunette hair into a shorter bob. Peter had instantly told her that she looked like a maladjusted pageboy from the Middle Ages and Paige had told him where he could stick his pageboy.

In response, Paige just stumbled off the couch and into the kitchen. "Eggs?" she asked over her shoulder as an afterthought.

"Pancakes would be better," Peter suggested.

"Then cook them yourself," she shot back.

She was just removing the carton when her cellphone started jingling in the other room. "Who is it?" she asked Peter, knowing he had snooped and caught sight of the caller ID.

"Vernon?" he answered. "Who's Vernon?"

"You know him as Boyd," she told him, swooping back into the living room and snatching her phone before Peter could actually answer it. "Hey," she said into the receiver.

"Hey," Boyd's cautious voice answered back. He didn't say anything else for a beat.

"What's up?" Paige finally pressured.

"I..." he trailed off and then began again. "I've been home for awhile," he said. "Been out of that goddamned vault for the first time in forever and I've just... been thinking. A lot. About a lot of things." Once again he stopped abruptly.

"What kinds of things?" Paige asked. There was a movement in the corner of her eye and she turned to find that Peter was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed, listening to every word they said. She crinkled her nose at him, hoping he would take the hint. Instead, he shrugged and smirked.

"I've been thinking about the time in the vault," he explained. "What I can remember about it anyways. And I've been thinking about the alpha's killing Erica and I've been thinking about what you said." In the corner of her vision, Paige watched as Peter raised an eyebrow. "You were right... It was our choice to walk off like that and by separating ourselves from the pack, we put ourselves in danger. There is strength in numbers and we were... we were too scared to see that. It wasn't your fault that Erica died - or Derek's. It was my fault." Paige opened her mouth to try to tell him that that wasn't what she had meant but Peter made a "shut up" gesture. "It was my fault and I want to fix it. I need to fix it."

Before Paige could even open her mouth, Peter was across the room, snatching the phone from her hand. "Hey Boyd, it's Derek's uncle Peter," he said. Paige tried to grab the phone back, but Peter dodged. "If you want back in the game, I was going to head over to Derek's tonight and discuss strategy. You in?"

"Yeah, I just need the address," Paige heard him say from out the receiver, across the room.

Peter gave him the address, wished him a good afternoon and then hung up. Swaggering over to Paige, he handed her back her phone.

"What the fuck was that?" she asked, grabbing the device and cradling it against her chest.

"He wants back in and Derek needs all the help he can get," Peter shrugged. He was about to head into the kitchen before he stopped and said, "And no, you aren't coming with tonight."

"I wasn't going to ask to," Paige snapped back.

"Good," Peter breathed over his shoulder as he entered the kitchen. "Want some pancakes?"

Paige didn't answer - just headed straight for the shower. But when she left the steaming bathroom, fully dressed and ready for her second day of job-hunting, she found Peter was gone but had left her a big plate of pancakes. She eat them all, but convinced herself she didn't like them one bit and that it was rather presumptuous of him to make her food he didn't know if she would actually eat.

* * *

"Are you employed yet?" was the first thing out of Peter's mouth when Paige got back later than day. He was slouched in his loveseat, reading some old book. He hadn't even lifted his head when she came in.

"Yes," Paige threw her purse down and plopped onto the couch.

"Shoes!" Peter barked at her, gesturing wildly to her feet.

With a groan, Paige yanked off her flip-flops and tossed them towards the door. "I'll be working at Patty's. You know, the Irish restaurant a few miles from here," she told him.

"Hostess or waitress?"

"Waitress - the lady was very impressed by my balancing skills," she joked.

"Yeah, manual labor jobs are what werewolves are good at," he shot back.

He didn't say anything else for a good long while, so Paige finally asked, "How was the meeting? Anything decided?"

"Boyd and Cora are tracking the alpha twins from school to home as we speak," Peter told her, flipping a page in his book.

This made her sit up straighter. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"The alpha pack is dangerous," Peter finally looked up at her. "We are all in danger - you said it yourself."

"I wish people would stop listening to me," she muttered to herself.

"Anyways," he continued. "Once we know their location, we are going to have an even bigger meeting later tonight." Before Paige could respond, he reminded her, "And no, you are still not invited."

"Fine," she shrugged and stood up. "I'm making dinner."

She was just straining the pasta when Peter's phone went off. He took his time marking his page and putting his book down before retrieving the phone.

"Peter," a voice asked through the receiver.

Paige nearly dropped the pan. She knew that voice. She loved that voice, even now. And she hated that voice a little bit.

The older beta seemed to notice her reaction. He shot her an apologetic look but answered, "Yeah, Derek?"

"Boyd and Cora found them, I'm calling Scott, we will meet in an hour - we're going to go after them," Derek spoke concisely.

Instantly, Paige tried to take a step forward and say - something, anything. She really didn't know what would have come out of her mouth because instead, Peter rushed out, "Sounds good," and hung up. Peter watched her while she watched the phone in his hand. Finally, he told her, "He thinks you're safe in Chicago. I've managed to keep your smell off of me every time I've seen him. He doesn't know you're here and if he did know... Paige, going after these alphas is - "

She cut him off. "A suicide mission," she snapped.

"But it will be less suicidal for him if he thinks you're safe - you'll be a distraction," he explained. "He'll be so worried about keeping you safe that he wouldn't be able to focus on saving his own life. You have to get that."

Slowly, she shook her head. "He doesn't care anymore. He doesn't love me and maybe he never did. I won't be a distraction."

After having calmed down and separated herself from the situation, she had come to realize that something truly wasn't right about what had happened - but it didn't matter what his motives had been. Isaac was right - no excuses. Even if he had wanted her safe, (assuming those had been his real motivations) he hadn't even told her what was going on, hadn't trusted her to make her own choice. He had used some of her greatest fears against her and that was unforgivable. You didn't hurt the people you love, even to help them. She knew that much.

Peter just shook his head. "Believe what you want," he said. "You aren't going." He glanced towards the strained and cooling pasta. "Now, what's for dinner?"

* * *

Even the next day, the conversation still wasn't over.

"Paige, be reasonable," he nearly begged.

"Attack Deucalion while he's alone? Cut the head off the hydra?" Paige's voice had hit up in pitch at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. Peter had finally revealed what they had discussed at the meeting after being pestered for hours by the younger beta. "And he honestly believes this will work?"

"_I_ believe this will work," he shot back.

"You don't believe in anything," she scoffed. "You only believe in saving your own skin and this tactic is most likely not to result in your death. Maybe one of the younger betas, but not yours. You have too much experience and if the plan doesn't work - if this dude is stronger than you all think he is, than there will be enough chaos for you to slip out unnoticed."

"Ouch," he teased, grabbing at his chest in mock injury. "One major flaw in that theory though: if I wanted to just save my own skin, I'd let you come with. One more young beta to use as a shield and you're nearly as morally upright as Scott. Now see, that kid, he wants to save everybody and in a pinch, I know he'd even try to save me. You're not as uptight as him and you can barely stand my guts, but you certainly wouldn't like the idea of me dying either. You would come to my rescue, if I really needed it. But, selflessly, I will continue to insist you stay here and put myself in more risk than necessary."

Paige scowled at him.

"Did you learn that from your mate?" Peter quipped.

Instantly, her face fell. "I don't have a mate," she grit out.

"You will always have a mate," he lectured her. "Whether you want to or now. And that's another thing," Peter pointed one perfectly clipped fingernail at her. "If something were to go wrong and Derek were to die, you will be the next alpha. It's like, with the State of the Union Address, how there is always one person in the line of succession for presidency who is not invited, so if someone bombs the place, the country will still have a leader. This pack will still need a leader."

At first she didn't say anything, before admitting, "If he dies, I want to be there. If I can stop it - I, I should be there. If I can."

"You won't be able to stop it," Peter sighed, exasperated. "No one can stop an alpha pack. Not a little beta like you." Paige didn't say anything - but her eyes were growing warmer and she knew she'd start crying if she thought about any of this for any longer. "This isn't about Derek - you staying here is about Boyd, and Isaac, and Scott, and Cora, and even me. We are the ones you need to think about. You got that?"

She nodded and they didn't argue about it again.

* * *

When Peter got the call, later that evening, Paige almost put up another fight. With quick sentences, Peter explained that he and Derek had been convinced Scott would try to contact the alpha leader on his own - they were right, it seems. Derek had followed the boy and all hands were needed on deck. They were going after the alpha pack leader.

Paige took her left hand and dug her nails hard into her right forearm to remind herself that she was needed here.

Before he walked out the door, Peter sniffed the air gingerly. Catching a scent, he turned to Paige and crossed the room once more to gently pry her claws out of her arm. "Silly beta," he scolded, but she didn't smile.

And then he was out the door.

To her credit, Paige did stay in that apartment for some time. She waited patiently on the couch but slowly her back began to hurt again and she forced her body into a standing position. Then she began to pace. Then, she decided that Peter had told her not to follow him - not to come to the battle. Fine then, she would go to where she knew they would take the injured.

She had hoped to keep Derek in the dark for a while longer - about her staying in Beacon Hills, but that wouldn't matter if he was dead.

And besides, she wasn't doing this for Derek. He had hurt her, deeply. No matter what he meant, no matter if he had been telling the truth or had been trying to protect her. She didn't want him dead by any means, but she wasn't going to check up on Derek, she told herself. She was going to check up on her friends and her fellow packmates.

Armed with her combat boots, skinny jeans and tank top, she took off into the night, headed for the place she had once called home. She had never been faster on her feet and when she arrived, it was empty.

Gingerly, she wandered around the main area, slipped into the kitchen, checked in on the spare room that had once been Isaacs and was now, apparently, Cora's. It still smelled like home to her.

Minutes after wandering back into the center area, she felt a twist in her gut. There wasn't any pain, just... indecision. Anger. Why was Derek so confused and frustrated? She forced herself to sit back down as another wave of what she now identified as fear swam over her body. All she wanted to do was roll into a ball and shut her eyes. Resting on the couch in a fetal position for a few moments longer, she tried grasping at exact emotions but everything was a mess and then it all settled down.

Her heart still raced though, and she forced herself to her feet. She needed water.

But her legs only took her so far before a weightlessness lifted her chest up. She felt... airborne. But not like she was flying... like she was _falling. _Before she knew what was happening, her body collapsed and an ear-splitting scream that wasn't hers rang out in the empty loft. Everything - _everything_ hurt, from straight up her back, to straight down her legs and as she stayed there, she felt the spreading warmth of phantom blood sliding down her arms and chest. Time passed slowly, each chime of the clock on their bedside table was five times slower than it's normal speed.

With each chime, each second, Paige moved another part of her body. Everything _hurt_ but something... something was wrong with her eyes. Each time she blinked, it was like her vision had shifted, but even when she was transformed, her vision was never this good. It blinked in and out and made her dizzy as she got to her knees.

Her eyes, she needed to see her eyes.

Something was wrong with them.

Crawling, she made her way to full-length mirror she had insisted they buy from an estate sale early in the summer. Her hands grasped the worn metal and she pushed herself up a bit more. It seemed, if it was difficult to move her body, moving her head was even more difficult. But somehow she lifted it up and caught sight of her face. Her hair was tangled, sticking up wildly, sticking to her face. Her usually slightly tanned skin had grown extremely pale under the stress of... whatever was happening. But most importantly...

Her eyes were blinking red.

They bled from yellow to indistinct blue-grey, then back to yellow, and all over again. But each time they shifted to her usual yellow, they would blink a deep red, an alpha red. On, off, yellow, bluish, yellow, red, yellow, red, yellow. And each time they blinked red, it was like all the worlds hidden secrets were open to her - that was how clear she could see.

Finally, they stayed red.

Paige watched the deep ridges of this new color glow and grow and just as it began to completely swallow her, the color bled right out of her eyes and the energy keeping her awake bled right out of her body.

She didn't know how long she lay there before the loft door swung open. Footsteps pounded in, waking her up, and Paige wondered for a moment if those were the footfalls of the alphas, here to ransack her home.

"Paige?"

Peter's hands were slick with blood as he rolled her over, propped her up, and checked for injuries. As Paige's own eyes catalogued her body, she realized that the only blood that was on her was whatever blood had been on Peter's hands. She was uninjured.

"Derek's dead," Paige told Peter. She couldn't say how she knew that, but she did. And the look Peter gave her only confirmed that fact. He knelt down farther and tried to leverage her up a bit more. Paige shook him off.

"I'm fine," she told him, weakly. And she was. Whatever had happened to her was over with. She felt perfectly normal. Except for the gaping hole in her chest that was only expanding as she began to admit to herself that her mate, her lover, her alpha was dead.

"Then help us," Cora snapped. Paige glanced behind Peter to find Cora holding Boyd up, but barely. Both of them were filled with claw marks and bruises. She pushed passed Peter and grabbed Boyd's other arm.

"Peter, there are cots in that room," she pointed to the spare room. "Bring out two."

As he did that, she steadied Boyd and kept a close eye on the girl. There was a huge foot-shaped bruise on her neck and she seemed to be swaying without any breeze to move her.

"Where is Scott?" Paige asked when Peter returned. "Is he... also...?" She couldn't say the word out loud again and maybe she thought if the word didn't leave her mouth, then it really hadn't actually happened. If she didn't say the word "dead" again, then she could believe no one had died tonight.

"No, no," Peter assured her as he set up the first cot. "He and Isaac headed straight back to Scott's house."

"Isaac was there?" Paige frowned. Derek had sent Isaac away and yet he had come back. If... maybe if Paige had also ignored Derek's wishes and Peter's wishes, he would still be... he wouldn't be...

"He came with Scott," Peter said, softly.

Peter seemed to be the most uninjured, which didn't surprise Paige. Either his experience gave him an edge over the bitten betas, or he had stayed out of most of the fighting, as was his way. But, despite lacking too many physical injuries, he was the one who seemed the most hurt. It was in the way he held himself, his body bent forward and his face littered with wrinkles Paige hadn't noticed this morning. And his eyes... they were hopeless. Derek's... what had happened that night must have truly hurt Peter.

The older man caught her observing him. Briefly, they just shared a look and then he nodded to her. She nodded back - nothing else was said. And then she got back to work. Gently, Paige settled her packmate onto the cot and clawed his shirt off to give his wounds some time to breathe. Peter turned his attention to Cora.

"Lie down, Cora," Peter was telling her. But the girl only sat.

"I'm fine," she tried to tell her uncle.

"You got the life choked out of you," Peter snapped back. "Lie. Down."

"Listen, uncle," she grit out. "I know what I'm doing. I'm fine."

"Your wounds are still bleeding," Paige observed. "He's right, you should rest."

"I've done enough resting!" Cora shouted, gripping the cot so hard her claws punched through the thick fabric. "I'm fine!"

Paige glanced at Peter, who was rolling his eyes. She looked to Boyd who was grimacing against the pain probably radiating through his body. This was so unhelpful. They were all wounded. The alphas could come after them at any minute now, knowing there were weakened. Exterminate them all.

_What would Derek do?_ she thought to herself.

Her brain spun around and around, reliving everything she had ever seen of that man - his mannerisms, his thought-process. His attitude. His strength. Everything she had ever admired and envied about him. What would his response to this whole cluster-fuck be?

Rising to her feet, she stalked around the cots and grabbing Cora by the shoulders, forced her completely down.

"You are very weak and we are very vulnerable right now," Paige explained sharply. "You need to rest - that is what you need to do right now in order to help this pack. Rest, get stronger, make the pack less vulnerable to the alphas. Do it, now."

Cora didn't say anything for a moment, staring up at her in shock. And then a looked passed over her face and she struggled against Paige's hold. But her grip remained true. Finally Cora asked, "Who are you to tell me what to do?"

Paige couldn't answer - not that she had an answer because she wasn't very sure who she was right now, either. Widow? Grieving girl? Vengeful bitch? Maybe all of the above. But she didn't have to know - Peter knew and instead, he answered for her.

"She's your alpha," Peter said simply.

The loft was silent. Paige has forgotten that. The line of succession would fall to her, now.

"That true?" Boyd asked from his cot.

She took a deep breath and finally answered, "Yes. I'm the alpha."

* * *

_Dear lord, when I get to heaven_

_Please let me bring my man_

_When he comes tell me that you'll let him in_

_Father tell me if you can_

_Oh that grace, oh that body_

_Oh that face makes me wanna party_

_He's my sun, he makes me shine like diamonds_


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize. Lyrics belong to Lana Del Rey.**

**A/N: Second part of the most recent episode! It definitely took a turn even I wasn't expecting, but we'll see what happens!**

**I'm going to warn you again: my latest updates will have spoilers for the latest episodes. If you haven't gotten a chance to see the episode, wait to read the chapter if you don't want to be spoiled. In addition, I enjoy imperfect narrators - Paige is the main focus and her perspective is the one I write from. Sometimes she doesn't know things or makes inferences that aren't true. It definitely helps to have seen the episode.**

**As always, thank you guys so much!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Big Ugly Lofts

By: Ginny

* * *

_All my friends tell me I should move on_

_I'm lying in the ocean, singing your song_

_Ahhh, that's how you sang it_

_Loving you forever, can't be wrong_

_Even though you're not here, won't move on_

_Ahhh, that's how we played it_

* * *

Paige washed out Boyd's wounds with as much care as she could. When she finally sanitized the last one, he nodded to her in appreciation and then leaned back. His eyes closed gently and she let him sleep.

Peter had finished with Cora a bit before and so Paige followed him into the kitchen to dispose of the bloody rags.

"Did you leave his body there?" she forced herself to ask.

_Be a big girl, _she told herself. _Ask the tough questions, make the hard decisions. You have to be strong for this pack - Derek would have wanted that._

"Yes," Peter said softly, taking the rags from her hands and gingerly placing them in a garbage bag. "We had to get the injured ones out of there."

She nodded and leaned against the sink.

"He killed an alpha," he spoke up again. "Took one of them down with him."

Truthfully, she didn't want to hear anymore. She knew he was trying to make her feel better but the reality of his death was too much for her to handle but... Maybe it was too much for beta Paige to handle - little beta Paige who could sit in the back and twiddle her thumbs and back up her alpha if he needed it. She wasn't little beta Paige anymore, she was the alpha now and she needed to be able to handle this.

"How did it happen?" she finally forced out.

Peter gave her a long side-glance and then sighed. "You don't want to know," he told her.

"Yes," she insisted. "I do. I need to." He still didn't budge. "Please."

"Don't do this to yourself," he tried again. "What does it matter? He died. He's gone. How it happened doesn't matter and you shouldn't have to have that picture in your brain."

Anger welled up in her chest and she was across the room before she even knew she had moved. Her hand was around Peter's neck, forcing him to bent painfully over the garbage can.

"I wasn't there," she growled. "You insisted that I not be there so that I wouldn't distract him, so that if Derek did die, the person next in line - _me_ - would be safe. So I stayed. And because I was here and not there, he died without me. I wasn't there for him when he passed and I should have been. The next best thing, though, is knowing how it happened." Peter cocked his head - or at least tried to. "In addition," Paige added. "If I'm the alpha now, and these betas are my responsibility now, I need to know how things went down - I need to know how they fought so that we can maybe develop a strategy next time."

He slowly reached up and put his hand around her wrist. "Fine," he said and Paige let go. Very gently, he reached out and brushed loose a tear from her cheek. Flinching away, she reached up her own hand and found both her cheeks wet. She hadn't even realized that she'd been crying.

"Fine," Paige repeated and took a step back.

"Deucalion had all of his alphas," Peter began. "We had more werewolves, but were still outnumbered. One alpha is like three betas - just to keep things even. Eventually they got Boyd and Cora pinned. They told Derek to kill Boyd or Cora would die." Paige opened her mouth but Peter added, "It was fine - that Argent girl came out of no where and blasted everyone with flare-arrows. Cora and Boyd got free. Derek chased one of the alphas - the big dude, not one of the twins, to an edge. We were at a construction area for an abandoned mall - there were lots of edges. Scott tried to get there in time but Derek pushed the alpha over and the alpha dragged Derek. They both fell about three, four stories straight down."

Gradually Paige nodded, very conscious of the fact that she hadn't shed a tear during the entire explanation. Good, she could handle this.

"And then you all got out safe?" she finished.

"Yeah," he nodded. "We split up - Isaac and Scott headed home. I headed here. I was going to call you but you were already here."

She fingered the edge of the table. "We should get his body," she decided.

"That can wait," Peter told her.

"No," she shook her head. "This is my responsibility. I'll go get it." She made a move to go around him and out the door but Peter's voice stopped her.

"Your responsibility is to your pack," he reminded her. "The living members of that pack. A part of your pack is at Scott's house. You should go check on him. Besides," he frowned at a spot right over her shoulder. "The alphas will need to go retrieve their packmates body as well. You shouldn't go alone and I'm in no position to back you up."

"And if they desecrate his body in revenge?" she shot back.

"It's just a body," Peter told her. "Derek's not in it anymore. He's -"

She cut him off. "Gone, yeah, I got it."

And as she shouldered passed him, she felt her stomach tighten a fraction.

"I'm going to go check on Isaac," she conceded and left.

* * *

The McCall house was eerily quiet except for the one bedroom lit up with light. Paige stood in the yard, watching as a shadow bustled back and forth in the room. Another shadow remained still in the corner. After a few moments, Paige took a huge leap forwards and up, grasping the edge of the gutters. She hoisted herself upwards and gently tapped at the window.

Inside, she listened as both heartbeats accelerated until Scott gingerly opened the curtain. Relief washed over his expression and he quickly let her in.

Her feet had barely hit the floor before she caught sight of Isaac.

The boy had seen better days - hair matted with blood, shirt ripped mostly to rags. And the moment his eyes found Paige's, his expression collapsed into pain. Paige instantly crossed the room and put her arms around the boy, pulling his head against her collarbone. And together they cried.

It was real.

It had really happened.

When her eyes had flashed red, she hadn't truly believed it. When half her person had been ripped from her and she had experienced his death with him, she hadn't truly believed it. When Peter had come home and told her he was gone, she hadn't truly believed it.

But here, now, holding her closest living friend, she knew it had happened. Derek was truly gone and they were going to have to figure out how to live in this world together, without their alpha.

Slowly their mutual sobs stopped long enough for Paige to remember that McCall was still in the room. As she pulled away, she found that he wasn't - he must have slipped out to give them some privacy. Sometimes that kid could be tolerable.

Paige used her shirt to wipe the tears from her face and allowed Isaac equal space to do the same and then she told him, "You're welcome back to the loft whenever."

"Thanks," Isaac breathed gently. "But... I think I'm going to stay a bit longer."

And though she nodded and affectionately brushed some of his hair from his forehead, Paige began to realize that maybe Isaac would rather have Scott for an alpha - that maybe she was losing her friend, just a little. But truly, if he was happier elsewhere, she wasn't going to be upset. Sad, maybe. Forcing a smile to her face, she stood up.

"Heal up well," she said. "Goodnight."

"Night," he whispered.

She decided to exit through the front door this time and discovered Scott in the living room downstairs. He was nursing a pretty nasty gash on his side.

"Try peroxide," she suggested. "Wounds heal faster when they don't have to disinfect themselves as well."

Scott nodded to her advice. "Thanks," he said. "It takes longer to heal because it's from an alpha, that's all. I'm hoping it's gone before cross country tomorrow."

"You have a meet tomorrow?" Paige asked. The small talk made her mouth hurt.

"Yeah, an away meet," he explained. "Isaac and Boyd are also going."

Paige nodded. She would make sure that Boyd was okay in the morning - otherwise, he wasn't going. But she wasn't going to tell Scott that. The boy had helped Derek in the past, but he had always made it clear that Derek wasn't his alpha. Scott had never been part of this pack. He didn't need to know pack business.

With that, she gave him a goodbye nod and made for the door. Her hand had barely landed on the knob before Scott's voice reached out, "I'm sorry, Paige." She tensed and stayed perfectly still. She really didn't want to talk about Derek with this boy.

"Nothing you could have done," she told him. And that was the truth. Peter had even told her that he had tried to help.

"Well, I just... I'm sorry he's gone," Scott said. After a solid moment of silence he added, "That makes you alpha, doesn't it?"

Her spine bristled and every hair on her body stood on edge. Why was she getting so angry? Why was she reacting this way? Turning to look at him, she realized that this boy had never respected her. And he had never respected her mate - not the way an omega should an alpha and his consort. She didn't want to talk about losing Derek. She didn't want to talk about her new position. And she didn't want to talk to this kid.

For a moment, she considered flashing her eyes at him.

Previously, that had been her favorite trick. If one of the other betas got snippy, she would flash her yellow eyes to remind them the control she had over herself - control they were still struggling to grasp. And when she was angry with a human who knew what she was, it only took half a thought to light up her eyes and remind them all that she was something savage to be feared.

But, she knew what Scott would see if she flashed her eyes at him: bright red, alpha red. When she had first seen that color, it had been settled in the eyes of a monster and she had feared it - had nightmares where that red swallowed her whole. And then Derek killed that monster and his eyes shone like fresh blood in the sun. There had been nothing more beautiful to Paige until that moment and since then, alpha red had meant love and home and protection. Red eyes reminded her of Derek.

And she wasn't going to waste any bit of his memory on Scott.

Instead, she said, "Yes. I'm the alpha."

Then she left.

* * *

Paige didn't sleep at all that night. Peter had made sure she was in bed, with the promise of trying to sleep, before he had left for his own bed. Near dawn, she had heard Boyd's alarm squawk loud and clear and she rose with him.

"Cross country?" she asked, watching him put on his gym shoes.

"Yeah," he said softly, trying not to disturb Cora. "We have an away meet." His hands stumbled over his other laces and he cursed. Paige sat down on the cot next to him and put her hands on his forearms.

"It's okay," she told him, soothingly.

"Derek is dead," he said sharply. For once, she didn't feel like flinching. "And I'm going to a cross country meet. How is this okay?" Boyd gave a heavy groan. "None of this is okay, or normal, or anything. I should be, I don't know, staying - mourning, something."

"Go," she decided for him. "There is nothing you can do here and you can't just give up on having a normal life. You have to have something besides the pack every once and awhile."

"How can you say that?" Boyd asked. "You just lost your mate."

"I don't have a normal life outside the pack," she reminded him. "I just have the pack. A huge part of that life died when Derek died, but that's my issue and my problem. I'll deal with it my own way. You deal with it in yours. Go, live like a normal person for at least a little bit. Besides, aren't the alpha twins on cross country? If Derek also took down a member of their pack, they are going to be looking for revenge. You can't leave Isaac and Scott without some back up."

"Scott isn't part of the pack," he reminded her.

"But Isaac is," she said.

Nodding, Boyd laced up his shoes and packed his bag.

"How are your wounds?" she finally thought to ask.

"Healed," he informed her. "Took most of the night, but they're barely scar tissue now."

"Okay," she hummed in the back of her throat. "Want me to make you breakfast?"

"I don't eat before a long run," he reminded her. She knew that - he had loved running when they had first met and used to schedule meals around his runs. That was right.

"Be safe," she wished him as he headed for the door. He was barely there before he turned around and pulled her into a tight hug.

"They'll come for you next," he said. "You be safe, too."

"I will," she promised. And then he pulled away and left. When Paige turned around, she found that Cora was wide awake and watching them.

"You take good care of them," she told the older girl. "Even if you are bossy." Cora threw back her blanket just as Paige decided to take that as a compliment. Stretching, Cora leaned forward, backward, side to side and then sighed. It seemed she had healed up just fine also. "I'm making breakfast and then we are going for his body," Cora decided.

Paige wanted to say something about the fact that she, as the alpha, would make the decisions from now on but the way Cora's eyes were ringed with red told Paige it would better to back down. She was hurting just as much.

Instead, she nodded and offered to cook Cora's favorite: sunny-side up.

Before they left, Paige decided that she wanted to use the bathroom. Stepping into her obnoxiously white bathroom, she paused to look in the mirror. She had forgotten that she had cut her hair and for a moment she had thought she was looking at a stranger. Everything was in disarray and she looked ill.

This wasn't how an alpha should look, she decided.

Pushing her hair off her face, she leaned in closer. There was nothing she could do for her paleness, that came with fatigue and stress. But she smeared on some cover up right underneath her eyes to hide the bags. Lining her eyes darkly, she made herself look like the kind of werewolf she was always aspiring to be. Lipstick of a deep red was then swept on to her mouth. If she did end up encountering the alpha pack while retrieving her mate's body, she wanted to look every bit like the alpha worthy of replacing Derek.

There was only one thing to finish this look.

Squinting a bit, Paige tried to light up her eyes. Nothing happened for a moment and she was forced to concentrate until something sparked up her irises. It... wasn't red. But it wasn't yellow either. Maybe a dirty orange? She tried again - this time they flashed yellow, to red, and then back to a dirty orange before extinguishing completely. Her head hurt so bad she didn't try again.

Gripping the sink, she realized something was wrong.

"Everything okay?" Cora asked, knocking on the door. "Your heart rate just spiked."

"Spider," Paige lied, pushing some hair off her face and pressing her eyes tightly closed.

"You are the alpha of a werewolf pack and you were startled by a spider?" the other girl scoffed. "Seriously?"

Paige whipped the door open. "Seriously," she answered. Grabbing her purse she commanded, "Let's go."

* * *

"You know their scent better than I do," Paige told Cora. The two were situated outside the abandoned mall, waiting to see if they would run into any alphas there. "Do you sense them?"

"They can hide their scent," she reminded the older girl.

"Just check," Paige ordered.

"I can't sense them," she finally decided. "Doesn't mean they aren't here, though."

Paige nodded and headed to the entrance. Immediately she realized, the alphas weren't here but Peter was.

"Peter!" she called out once she caught sight of him. He was standing by the broken down escalators, frowning at the floor.

"You shouldn't be here, Paige," he told her. "You shouldn't have to see the body - let me do it."

"My responsibility," she reminded him. "Where did he land?"

"Here," Cora left out a soft breath, coming to stand by Paige. "He fell from up there," she pointed. "And he landed right here."

"The alpha he took a tumble with is also gone," Peter noted.

Something inside Paige caught aflame - hope? Fear? She lifted her nose and just as the wind picked up, she caught a scent. Before she knew her feet were moving, she was already out of the building.

In the distance, Cora called out to her. Peter just scoffed and said, "She always does that."

But Paige flushed out all the noise around her. Either the alphas had taken his body with them, or he had survived the fall. His scent was unsteady and blood trail she quickly picked up on was erratic. There was no pattern to it. Either the alphas were leading her into a trap or Derek was struggling to move.

Her legs ached by the time she stopped, halting in front of the vet's office. Of course he would go here, she realized. This was a safe spot - a place of healing. This must mean that Derek was alive, if he had come here.

Two steps closer to the office and a voice rang out, "Hey!"

Paige's head whipped around to find one of the twins coming around the corner. Their eyes locked and time stood still. Then everything exploded - the alpha was almost on her before she threw herself back, out of his reach. She scraped her elbow on the ground before sliding to her feet. The alpha swung a fist at her, catching her right above the temple. As she fell to the ground, the pressure in her chest became overwhelming.

Derek wasn't alive. The alphas had taken his body with them when they came here. Her eyes were malfunctioning because she was weak and undeserving of the title of alpha, not because Derek was still alive. All her hope had been for nothing.

Not nothing, maybe.

Her hope had been for more than just her. It had been for Boyd, who couldn't imagine going to a cross country meet while his alpha lay dead somewhere. It had been for Isaac, who had fought for the man who had thrown him out and had cried her arms when that man perished in battle. It had been for Cora, who had only just been reintroduced to her brother, only to lose him again. It had been for Peter, who secretly relied on Derek's morality.

And now, that hope was gone. What was left?

The alpha crouched near her, leaned over her and grabbed a fistful of her hair.

Take away Derek and what was left for this group of werewolves?

His hand twisted her hair and lifted her head a foot off the ground, intending to slam it back down onto the asphalt.

What was left?

_Her._

Grabbing his wrist, she wrapped her own hand around it and squeezed. The bones in his wrist popped under her grip and with a strangled groan he let her go. Within an instant, she was back on her feet, leg lashing out and catching him in the chest.

She didn't wait to see him if he was going to follow her as she took off. Without paying attention to where she was going, she let her feet take her as far from that clinic and that alpha as she could go. Gradually she reached a familiar area and slowed down but it wasn't until she reached a semi-public area that she realized the alpha _had_ tracked after her. Pressing her feet deeper into the cement, she stalked onto the street.

The alpha hesitated behind her but pressed forward after her.

It wouldn't take much to kill him... She was an alpha now - she could destroy another alpha, right?

If she got him alone...

But someone on the street glanced at her and gasped. Paige frowned at the unknown woman and quickly the stranger averted her eyes and walked fasted down the street, away from the girl. Paige scowled after her and reached up. The wound on her head had closed and there was no residual blood at all. Why was she so scared?

Looking back, Paige realized the alpha was officially gone. Fine.

She needed some coffee anyways. Ducking into the nearest shop, she strutted up to the barista and demanded a small latte. The man behind the counter took one look at her and then his eyebrows shot up in shock. Then he seemed to calm down as she paid.

"Nice contacts," he complimented. "Are you cosplaying or something?"

Paige blinked at him and then nearly sprinted to the bathroom. She startled the teenage girl applying lip gloss in the mirror, but she didn't care. Her eyes were glowing red. Not the dirty orange, not the flickering red to yellow.

They were just red.

Leaning against the counter, Paige took a deep breath. She hadn't even noticed that her eyes had shifted. That was so dangerous, she could have exposed everyone. She waited for the random girl to finish her makeup and leave before concentrating on shifting her eyes back to normal. It felt like she was removing irritating contacts, but when she finally blinked her eyes back open, they were back to normal.

So that was that, then.

If her eyes were so completely red - Derek was really, truly gone.

There wasn't time to cry. She needed to get back to Peter and Cora and tell them that the alphas took Derek's body and they were probably never going to get it back. Her order was ready, she realized before she even left the bathroom. The scent of latte reached her nostrils and completely invaded them.

This must be the power of an alpha, she realized. Her senses were even better than before.

She took her drink and left. The barista tried to say something about her eyes being normal again, but she ignored him. Entering the outside was like an explosion of new scents and smells. When she had been bitten, everything had seemed so new. Now, everything had been renewed. Except for the one person who had had to die to make this possible.

Her nose picked up his scent still clinging to her, the mate-scent that would stay with her forever... and then a burst of his scent in the wind.

Tensing, she dropped her drink.

There it was, right there, lingering in front of her. Derek's scent whisping up and down this street. How was that possible?

She didn't care.

Snatching a huge whiff of it, she took off towards the freshest patch. One long road down, turn right, her feet kept going. When the high school came into focus, Paige frowned. Why the high school? Why would they bring his body here?

Except...

There was a figure in the parking lot. It was a tall, broad, and bloody figure, stumbling off the grass and onto the cement of the parking lot.

Paige didn't need alpha vision to know who that was.

"_Derek!_" she nearly wailed, tripping over her first step closer to him. The figure stopped and swayed as it turned. There was so much blood, but it was him. His eyes blinked at her and he was alive.

Within an instant, she was next to him, her arms around him. He fell against her and sighed as the two of them sunk to the floor.

"How?" she whispered into his hair. His breathing was so deep and even that she knew he had fallen asleep instantly in her arms. "I don't care how," she decided aloud.

He was alive.

Her alpha, her mate, her lover was alive.

* * *

_Every time I close my eyes_

_It's like a dark paradise_

_No one compares to you_

_I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side_


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize. Lyrics belong to Lana Del Rey.**

**A/N: This is late and for that I am extremely apologetic. There has been a lot going on in my life: my LSAT testing date is swiftly approaching, my work schedule is getting more hectic, my love-life is getting more complicated and so this story has unfortunately been on the backburner. That will change, I promise.**

**In addition, another thing sapping my motivation is the fact that I really don't like how Derek is being written this season. The individual episodes have been great, but I feel like this season especially, Derek is being used more as a plot device than as a legitimate character. It makes writing him in this story that much more difficult. And as enlightening as the backstory episode was, it seemed trite and shallow. Though I did also think it was ironic that his first love's name was Paige. You can bet that'll be coming up in my story.**

**Anyway, thank you all so much for reading! I truly appreciate it.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Big Ugly Lofts

By: Ginny

* * *

_Baby put on heart shaped sunglasses_

_Cause we gonna take a ride_

_I'm not gonna listen to what the past says_

_I've been waiting up all night_

* * *

Paige gave herself only a few seconds to lean forward and press her nose into his matted hair. Inhaling his scent, everything worry and every doubt she had been experiencing this entire day and a half floated away. And just as suddenly as there was relief, the reality came crushing back. Okay, he was alive - barely. There was still definitely something wrong with her eyes. And the alpha pack could be looking for the currently injured Derek in order to take revenge while he was still weak.

"Okay, time to get up," she told him, knowing that he was still unconscious. Grasping under his armpits, she pulled her remaining strength into dragging him away from the open area of the parking lot. Settling him down behind a navy blue pickup truck, she tried to determine who she could call for a ride. Boyd didn't have a car, Isaac had her Prius parked somewhere or another. Peter had some automobile, somewhere.

Just as her hand slipped into her jacket to grab her phone, footfalls met her ears. Instantly, she tensed. It must be the alpha twin that had been tracking her - he must have followed her here, to her mate.

But what appeared around the pickup truck was no werewolf. Paige didn't recognize the woman, but she did remember at least a whiff of her scent. When Paige had been crazed by the moon, she, Boyd, and Cora had trapped this woman in the boiler room. The only reason Paige hadn't ripped her chest open and tore her limps off was because Derek had interfered. If Paige recalled correctly, she was a teacher here at the high school.

"Do you..." the teacher began. "Do you need help?"

For a moment, she hesitated. Paige glanced down at Derek and frowned upon realizing that his breathing was slowly becoming more shallow. Looking back up at the teacher, she searched the woman's dark brown eyes. If this lady already knew about werewolves, what was the harm of taking her up on her offer of help.

"Do you have a car?" Paige finally asked.

"Yes!" she offered, earnestly. "I can take you wherever you need to go!"

Paige slipped her phone back into her pocket and pulled Derek back into her arms.

"He looks very heavy, do you need help?" the teacher offered.

"I'm stronger than I look," Paige snapped back and instantly regretted it. This woman was doing nothing except offering her assistance - assistance that Paige desperately needed currently- and she couldn't be civil for a moment or two?

It was slow going, but she gently dragged her mate to the teachers car and situated him in the back seat.

"Where are we headed?" the older woman asked.

"Turn this way out of the parking lot," Paige gestured to the right and then turned back to check on Derek.

"I'm Jennifer Blake, by the way," she offered.

"Paige," she responded, purposefully not adding her last name. Once again, she felt bad. Had she been so involved with the Hale clan that she had picked up their constant paranoia and bad attitude? To make herself feel better, she added, "Thank you for doing this, Ms. Blake."

"Please call me Jennifer," she told Paige. "You graduated last year, didn't you? You aren't a student, you can call me by my first name." Jennifer turned a bit in her seat and glanced back at Derek's broken body. "It's truly not a problem. He saved my life, I owe him."

The werewolf didn't speak, knowing full well Jennifer must also remember who Derek had had to save her from.

Paige gave monotone directions until something occurred to her... Her eyes. If Derek was still alive, why were her eyes flipping out? Paige yanked down the overhead visor and studied her reflection in the mirror. She noted that Jennifer had glanced over to check out what she was doing, but Paige didn't let that break her concentration. Focusing, she tried to light up her eyes and was startled to find that they were still a deep, pure red. Almost to reassure herself, she reached back and touched her mate. His pulse still beat beneath her fingers, so why were her eyes red?

How was that possible?

"Something wrong?" Jennifer asked, discreetly.

"Hopefully not," Paige answered honestly just as they pulled into the building parking lot. "Thank you," she told Jennifer again and then she was out of the passenger seat, yanking the back door open.

"If there's anything I can do, just tell me!" Jennifer offered one last time.

But Paige was no longer focused on outsiders or manners. Derek had started gasping shallowly from the top of his throat, like his lungs couldn't hold air.

"Hang on, babe," she whispered as she heaved him up the stairs. She nearly tripped over him, getting his body into their bed and once she let him go, he gave a groan of pain. Instantly, Paige leaned back over and ran a hand down the side of his face. He relaxed and leaned into the touch. "I'm here, Derek," she told him. "I won't go anywhere so long as you promise you'll stay here too."

It only took her a moment to remove his bloody shirt and pants. Despite the vast amount of blood on his clothing, most of those wounds seemed to be stitching themselves together except for the biggest, taking up half of his stomach, up to his ribs. But that wasn't even counting all of the deep purple, green and blue motifs bruising their way up and down his torso. The internal bleeding was the most dangerous.

She had barely stood up from the bed in order to grab disinfectant and bandages, when Derek let out a low whine. "Paige," he breathed. "You... this isn't real. You left. I sent you away."

Smoothing some of his hair back, she didn't say anything to that - probably because she didn't want to think about all the pain he had caused her. Not now, not in this moment - she had been mourning his death all last night and this morning and now she had him back, this wasn't something she wanted tainted with past mistakes and stupid regrets. Instead, she quickly retrieved the first aid kit tried to bandage the gasp. Having no experience with internal bleeding, she didn't know how to help.

Derek let her bandage him, watching her with pain-stressed eyes. When she finished, she made a move to leave the bed and perhaps boil some water for tea - the man must be starving but she didn't want to feed him. And maybe she should call Scott's mom. She was a nurse - she could help. And then maybe she should call the pack to let them know Derek was alive. But Derek had different plans and grasped her wrist. The hold was weak, but Paige had no intention of fighting him anyways.

"Something's wrong," he told her. "I feel like my bones are burning and my organs are throbbing."

"It's the internal bleeding," Paige told him. But already, she watched as his eyes began to glaze over. Either the pain was too much for him or there was truly something wrong. Paige immediately pulled out her phone. She needed to call Melissa or Peter or both.

"No," Derek murmured. "Don't leave."

"I'm just making a phone call," she rationalized. This time she did break his hold and was halfway through dialing Melissa's number when she realized what Derek was doing with the hand she had let go of - he was using it to peel back the bandaged on his torso. "Stop that!" she ordered. But it was too late, the gauze was off and underneath it, his wound was leaking black. Instantly she decided to call Peter instead.

Unfortunately, she never got the chance to, as Derek then sat up and started heaving black blood.

Paige sprinted to the kitchen to find a glass of water. By the time she returned, Derek was already lying on his back again, groaning. She felt his forehead and cursed at the abnormally high temperature.

His pain was radiating around the room and around her chest cavity. Each throb of his heartbeat released more agony and very quickly it was beginning to overwhelm Paige as well. Her brain started aching and there was a thick fog settling around her thoughts. It wasn't until her phone started buzzing that she was able to remember that she was feeling Derek's pain through their mate-bond, not because she was actually in pain. There needed to be some kind of relief - she needed to break him out of whatever haze he had fallen into and fast.

Derek had told her long ago that werewolves did have the unique ability to pull pain out of someone. Humans, mostly. But sometimes it could work between an alpha and their beta. Derek definitely wasn't a beta and Paige had no idea what she was, but she thought it was worth a try.

Leaning over him, she pressed her hands over the deepest purple bruises and tried to pull the pain out of him. She had seen Isaac demonstrate once, knew there should be black being sucked into her veins. But nothing happened. In fact, Derek only seemed to be getting worse. Tears of frustration seemed to be building up in her eyes, but Paige tried to keep her head clear. Derek's pain in her heart was a distraction enough. And... that was it.

If Derek was projecting his pain onto her and it was physically affecting her, why couldn't the reverse be true?

Replacing her hands back on his torso, she concentrated on peace and happiness and numbness and tried to force those feelings through her veins, out her hands, and into his body. There were no black veins up her arms, but she hadn't expected there to be. Instead, there was a pressure in her head, right behind her eyes, that was building. The more Paige concentrated, the more it hurt. But Derek wasn't reacting at all. The deep lines in his face shifted with each second, deeper and deeper.

Letting out a frustrated growl, Paige felt her face shift. She knew her claws were out, her fangs were out, and her eyes were glowing some color or another. This was the form she felt strongest in and right now Derek needed her at her strongest.

The pressure right behind her eyes flared and she had just enough time to say Derek open his eyes and gasp and then there was blackness.

* * *

The first thing that occurred to her when she finally gained some sense of self was that her head hurt like a bitch. In addition, her mouth felt dry and her back ached. If she didn't know any better, she would have assumed that she was hung over after a night of drinking and fighting. But getting a werewolf drunk was so difficult that it almost wasn't worth the effort and Derek had told her that it was even more impossible for a wolf to be hungover. So, she could conclude that she wasn't waking up after a night of debauchery.

"Her eyes were red?"

Peter's voice pushed its way into her brain and she groaned. Instantly two sets of footfalls rushed closer to her.

"Paige?" Derek asked. But Paige was still too weak to respond. Which was unfortunate, because there was nothing in this world she wanted more than the ability to roll over and bear witness to the fact that Derek was alive and well.

Instead, she managed to grunt, "I feel like shit."

"Well, you look like it, too," Peter snarked from somewhere far off.

Dereks gentle hands cradled her face and gingerly pulled her body so that she was facing him. God, she felt like shit but he looked almost completely back to normal. There was still dried blood clinging to his face and torso, but all of the wounds and bruises had vanished.

_Did I do that?_ Paige wondered.

"Your eyes were red," Derek explained softly, running his fingers through her hair.

"Which would have made sense if you had been dead, but you weren't," Peter added, frustration lacing his words.

"They had been malfunctioning even before," Paige told them. "Last night, I was here waiting for everyone to get back and..." She glanced away from Derek before revealing, "I felt when you fell and then my eyes started feeling weird. When I was finally able to look at myself, they were flashing between yellow and red and orange and then... They stopped. All this morning, they've been primarily red." She looked back to her mate. "I thought it was because you had died."

"Could that have happened?" Derek asked Peter. "Could she have developed the power of an alpha merely by believing I was dead?"

Peter shrugged. "The mind is a powerful thing, but at the same time, the power of an alpha transfers without conscious awareness most times. Laura didn't know about the fire until after the power of the alpha had been given to her."

"Then what happened?" Derek continued to search Paige's face.

"Any theories?" Paige added.

"A few," Peter admitted. "My favorite involves your mate-bond, though."

"How so?" she asked.

"Mates occur within a pack," he explained. "The connection is already forged between you and Derek that would allow you to become alpha if he were to die. Derek was very close to death at the time and so your body was probably preparing take on that power, sensing that he was nearly dead. The longer he was in that kind of state, the longer your body had to adjust to the power, probably."

"I felt it," Paige admitted. "I could see and hear everything so much more clearly."

"Two alphas can't exist at the same time in a pack," Derek rationalized. "How did we both have that power?"

"Paige probably stole it," Peter shrugged.

"What?" Paige squawked and struggled to push herself up. Derek soothed her back down.

"You undoubtedly didn't mean to," Peter conceded. "But as mates in a pack, and one of you being an alpha, I'm willing to bet the power transferred away from Derek because he was too weak to lead the pack in his current state. Paige hadn't been in the fight - she was perfectly healthy and ready to accept leadership in the pack. But that meant that Derek stopped being an alpha. It made healing that much more difficult and that's probably why he nearly died."

"I'm so sorry," Paige whispered.

"You didn't do it on purpose," Derek said at the same time that Peter reminded her, "You fixed your mistake pretty quickly, so it's fine. He's obviously still alive and kicking." He put a hand on Derek's shoulder, which was promptly shrugged off.

"Am I still...?" Paige wondered aloud.

"No," Derek shook his head. "When you forced whatever it was that you forced into me, I saw your red eyes and I watched them bleed back to yellow."

"You probably gave him back his alpha power," Peter clarified.

They sat in silence for a moment before Derek turned to Peter. "You called Cora, correct?"

"Yeah, she knows you're still breathing. She'll be here soon."

"Can you go take her to your place?" Derek requested. "I don't want her attacked here if the alpha's come for revenge."

"And Paige?" Peter nodded to the girl. But Paige was more focused on calming her nerves. Now that she was completely awake, the pressure was gone, but now she was nauseous.

"I'll bring her over later," the alpha explained. "She shouldn't be moved just yet."

"Not unless you want to clean up my puke," Paige added.

"I'll get you some water," he offered. Paige watched him head into the kitchen and then sighed.

"You need to learn not to run off," Peter scolded her once Derek was out of human earshot. "Cora and I followed your trail and watched it overlap with one of those creepy alpha twins. Your rashness got you in trouble."

"I'll keep that in mind," she snarked back.

But Peter continued to frown. "I meant what I said, Paige. This pack needs you. Try to stay alive for a bit longer, okay?"

Derek returned with the glass of water just in time to see his mate nodding her head. He opened his mouth, probably to ask what they had been talking about but the front door buzzed and Cora came striding through. "Derek," she breathed, and threw herself at him. Fully healed, he caught her easily. She allowed herself to be put down after a moment and looked her brother over. "You're perfectly healed."

"That's Paige's fault," he gestured to her prostrate form. She tried to lift a hand to wave, but her arm felt too heavy.

"Are you okay, Paige?" Cora asked, stepping closer to the girl.

"Been better," she tried to joke. The stark reality of the words made the humor fall flat.

"Peter is taking you to his place for now," Derek told Cora. The girl looked like she was going to put up a fight, but then she glanced down at Paige. Sometime in her eyes softened and she nodded. They left immediately, while dusk was still clinging to the sky.

Gingerly, Derek helped her into a sitting position and let her sip the cool water. She finished the cup quickly and asked for some more. When Derek returned with a fresh cup, she only drank about half. Her mate placed the cup off to the side and shifted their bodies so that Paige's back was snug against his chest. His arms wrapped completely around her and squeezed just hard enough to remind her that he was there.

"You didn't go to Chicago at all, did you?" he asked softly. He didn't sound mad, just resigned.

"You hurt me, Derek," she told him in barely a whisper. "You hurt me a lot and I have no idea what you hoped to gain from it. If anything you had said had been true, you wouldn't be here now," she concluded. "But I didn't know that at the time and I don't honestly think I'll ever forgive you for some of the things you said. Even if you didn't mean it, you tried to hurt me purposefully and no mate should ever do that." His grip on her tightened and she almost stopped talking right then and there. But something pushed her forward - maybe her need for him to understand that she didn't trust him nearly as unconditionally as before. "At this point, I don't trust you not to hurt me again," she finally said.

For a good long while, neither of them spoke until Derek eventually ventured, "You stayed, though."

"I didn't want to," she admitted. "But I knew something was wrong and then Isaac called. I didn't want to turn my back on this pack without knowing the full story, especially with the alpha pack still out for blood. Isaac stayed with Scott and I stayed with Peter. I knew you guys were planning to take on the alphas and I wanted to help, but Peter told me I would just distract you."

Derek didn't say anything. Paige noticed that he hadn't apologized either.

"You should rest," he suggested.

"I thought we were moving to Peter's?" Paige inquired. "Or is that just me?"

"Rest for a bit longer and then we'll both stay there for the night," he explained. "We'll decide what to do tomorrow morning."

* * *

And that was exactly what they did. Peter arranged a massive blanket-pillow nest on his living room floor and together the Hales, plus Paige, camped out together. By later that evening, she was able to keep down some broth and then the next morning, she kept her eggs and whole grain toast down quite nicely. As they sat together all eating, something occurred to her and she put her fork down loudly. "Isaac and Boyd don't know," she told them. "They are at a cross country meet right now - they still think Derek's dead!"

"Scott, too?" Derek added.

Paige looked at her alpha sideways. "Yeah," she confessed. "Scott also still thinks you're dead."

"Aren't the alpha twins on cross country?" Cora asked.

Derek stood up from the table and retrieved Paige's phone from the overnight bag she had had him pack. Paige was already beginning to feel more like herself and strained her ears in order to pick up Isaac's side of the conversation. It rang twice and then Isaac's voice boomed through the speaker, "Hello?"

"Isaac, it's Derek," the alpha announced.

"...Derek?" the relief was evident immediately in his voice. In the background, multiple voice erupted. She could make out Boyd's, Scott's and Stiles' very easily. "We... we thought you were dead."

"I'm not," he responded briskly. "Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah," Isaac instantly answered, a little too fast. A brief pause occurred where Isaac must have realized his answer wasn't too convincing. "Well, Scott wasn't healing properly for a while, but he's fine now. And I got a mild suspension for beating up one of the alpha twins and then we had to stay at this motel and something happened..."

"What happened?" Derek pressed.

"We think the darach attacked us," Isaac finally admitted. "We were poisoned with wolfsbane and it made us all hallucinate but we're fine! Everything is fine, everyone is alive, especially you."

"The darach?" Paige turned and asked Peter.

"Evil druid who is ritualistically sacrificing people to gain power," he explained.

"I'm out of the pack for a few days and I miss everything," she complained.

Peter shushed her just as Derek told Isaac, "Get home safe and meet us back at my loft. We'll touch base there."

"Roger," Isaac joked but Derek was already hanging up the phone.

"Are werewolves part of the three things that need to be sacrificed? Cora immediately questioned.

"All Deaton said was that each group of three stood for something," Derek told her.

"So... you're telling me that on top of dealing with this stupid alpha pack, there is also an evil druid who wants to kill us?" Paige asked. When all Derek did was nod, Paige sighed, picked up her fork and accepted that it was obviously just a normal day in Beacon Hills.

* * *

_Take another drag turn me to ashes_

_Ready for another lie?_

_Says he's gonna teach me just what fast is_

_Say it's gonna be alright_


End file.
